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BOOK    325.26.0L1D    c.  1 

OLBRICH    #    DEVELOPMENT    OF 
SENTIMENT    ON    NEGRO    SUFFR  AGE    TO     1  8 


J^ 


V 


3    ^153    OOOlOE^m    T 


325-26 

xrttd 


e.c 


BULLETIN     OF    THE     UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 


NO.   477 

History  Series,  Vol.  3,  No.  1,  pp.  1— 13s 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SENTLMENT  ON  NEGRO 
SUFFRAGE  TO  1860 


BY 

EMIL  OLBRICH 


A   THESIS   SUBMITTED   FOR  THE   DEGREE   OF   MASTER   OF  ARTS 
THE   UNIVERSITY   OF   WISCONSIN 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OP  WIS0ON9I 
1912 
PRICE  .   .   CENTS. 


BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

Entered  as  second-class  matter  Jiine  10,  1898,  at  the  i)Ost  ofBce  at  Madison,  Wisconsin 
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Tt 


BULLETIN     OF    THE     UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 


NO.   477 

History  Series,  Vol.  3,  No.  1,  pp.  1 — 135 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SENTIMENT  ON  NEGRO 
SUFFRAGE  TO  1860 


BY 

EMIL  OLBRIOH 


A   THESIS   SUBMITTED   FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF   MASTER   OF   ARTS 
THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   WISCONSIN 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 
1912 


9^ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 
Colonial  Practice  and  Rbvoltjtionary  Principlks,  to  1790 1 

CHAPTFR  II. 
A  Pekiod  of  Reaction,  1700  to  1838 21 

CHAPTER  III. 
Suffrage  and  Anti-Sla vebt,  1838  to  1846 71 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Struggle  in  the  Northwest,  1844  to  1857 79 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Republican  Party  and  Negro  Suffrage,  1857  to  1860 107 

Bibliography 128 


V 


PREFATORY  NOTE 


This  study  was  made  during  the  academic  year,  1905  to  1906, 
in  partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of 
Master  of  Arts  at  The  University  of  Wisconsin,  Mr,  Olbrich 
also  treated,  in  the  form  of  exceptionally  complete  and  fin- 
ished seminary  reports,  the  whole  subject  of  negro  suffrage 
through  the  passage  of  the  fifteenth  amendment,  and  had 
planned  to  present  these  results,  together  with  a  study  of  its 
later  phases,  in  the  form  of  a  doctoral  dissertation.  In  the 
summer  of  1906,  IMr.  Olbrich  was  drowned  while  bathing  in 
Lake  Mendota.  This  fragment  of  his  work  is  obviously  not 
precisely  in  the  form  in  which  Mr.  Olbrich  would  have  pre- 
sented it  to  the  public.  In  particular,  more  use  would  have 
been  made  of  biographical  and  newspaper  material. 

The  handling  of  the  material  actually  used,  however,  was  so 
thorough  and  sane  as  to  make  the  work  of  editing  it  a  real 
pleasure,  and  this  reliability,  combined  with  the  substantial 
originality  of  the  facts  and  conclusions,  were  felt  to  warrant 
publication. 

The  manner  of  treatment,  moreover,  exhibits  a  distinct  in- 
dividuality and  force,  in  which  are  traceable  the  qualities  which 
gave  Mr.  Olbrich  a  marked  reputation  as  a  debater,  and  which 
is  particularly  well  suited  to  the  subject  matter.  It  is  possible, 
lioweA'er,  that  these  considerations  might  not  of  themselves 
have  induced  the  editor  to  take  up  the  problem  of  publication, 
had  it  not  been  for  his  feeling  of  friendship  for  Mr.  Olbrich, 
and  his  sense  of  the  loss  which  the  historical  profession  suf~ 
f  ered  by  his  death. 

Carl  Russell  Fish. 


[5] 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  SENTIMENT  ON  NEGRO 
SUFFRAGE  TO  1800 


CHAPTER    I 


COLONIAL    PKACTICE    AND    REVOLUTIONARY 

PRINCIPLES,  TO  1790 

The  imposition  of  negro  suffrage,  on  the  Southern  States  by 
the  Reconstruction  measures  of  1867  is  regarded  liy  eminent 
historians  as  a  hasty  act/  Without  discussing  here  whether 
this  view  is  justified,  it  may  be  asserted  that  to  explain  fully 
why  the  North  forced  the  South  to  let  the  black  man  vote,  one 
must  trace  the  development  of  ideas  on  the  African's  right  to 
choose  his  rulers  through  more  than  a  hundred  years  of  previous 
history. 

Prerevolutionary  Restrictions 

Apparently  the  earliest  record  of  negro  voting  comes  from 
South  Carolina.  In  1701  and  1703  the  elections  for  governor 
were  characterized  by  irregularities ;  it  was  complained  in  both 
those  years  that  many  illegal  votes  were  received  from  "sev- 
eral unqualified  classes  such  as  aliens,  strangers,  servants  and 
free  negroes."-  On  December  15,  1716,  an  act  was  passed 
which  provided  that  "every  white  man  and  no  other,"  pos- 
sessing the  requisite  qualifications  "should  be  capable  to  elect 


1  Rhodes.  "If  ever  in  our  history  there  was  a  case  of  hasty  man,  it  was  in 
the  Rtvonstrnction  legislation  of  Congress.  The  serious  discussion  began  Jan. 
3.  1S67.  and  the  act  was  passed  over  the  President's  veto  March  2."  Mass.  Hist. 
Soc.  Proceedmfis.  2nd   Series.  Vol.  XVII,  p.  460.   Dec.  1004. 

=  A.  E.  McKinley,  The  Kiijfro'jc  Frnnc/iise  in  the  Thirteen  English  Colonies 
in  America,  pp.   lo7,  1H8. 

[7] 


8  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

or  be  elected  meitibers  of  the  Commons  House  of  Assembly."* 
Virginia,  in  1705,  forbade  any  negro,  mulatto  or  Indian  to 
"bear  any  office,"  "or  be  in  any  place  of  public  trust  or  power," 
under  penalty  of  £500,  and  £20  a  month  as  long  as  he  should 
continue  to  hold  the  position.*  That  this  drastic  provision 
was  directed  at  any  real  danger  seems  wholly  improbable ;  for 
it  was  not  until  1723  that  the  same  classes  were  forbidden  to 
vote,  by  a  law  which  was  perhaps  the  result  of  an  attempted 
negro  insurrection.^  When  this  latter  law  was  referred  to  Rich- 
ard West,  Attorney  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  he  wrote :  "I  can- 
not see  why  one  freeman  should  be  used  worse  than  another, 
merely  on  account  of  his  complexion — .  It  cannot  be  right  to 
strip  all  persons  of  a  black  complexion  from  those  rights  which 
are  so  justly  valuable  to  any  freeman."®  After  being  in  force 
for  ten  years  or  more,  this  act  seems  to  have  been  repealed  by 
l')roclamation,  for  it  is  found  in  the  revisal  of  1733,  but  not  in 
that  of  1766;  and  another  act  disfranchising  negroes,  mulat- 
toes  and  Indians,  v/as  passed  in  1762.'  North  Carolina,  in  1715, 
by  "the  earliest  extant  election  law,"  provided  that  "No 
Negro,  Mulatto  or  Indians  shall  be  capable  for  voting  for  Mem- 
bers of  Assembly."'^  This  exclusion  Avas  omitted  from  a  law 
of  1784-5  which  restricted  the  suffrage  to  freeholders,  and  the 
preamble  of  which  recites  that  "it  hath  been  found  inconven- 
ient for  the  freemen"  to  vote,  and  that  the  royal  instruction  had 
directed  that  only  freeholders  should  vote  for  members  of 
assembly.  Whether  the  omission  of  the  color  discrimination 
Avas  consciously  designed  to  admit  negroes,  one  cannot  tell ;  but 
it  was  not  re-adopted  by  North  Carolina  until  1835.®  Georgia, 
in  1761,  passed  an  election  law,  of  which  the  preamble  stated 
that  the  manner  and  form  of  choosing  members  of  the  assembly 

"Ibid.,  p.   146. 

<  Ibid.,  p.  4G.      Ilenins.  ^Uiiiiles  at  Lnrf/c.  TIT.    p.   2.'51. 

!>  Honing,  IV,  pp.  l^S-i?A;  McKinley.  p.  nO  ;  Chandler,  J.  A.  C,  The  Hinfory 
"/  ^iiffi'dfje  in  Virrjinia,  Johns  Hnpkinx  Ilifiioiical  Studies,  XTX,  Nos.  6  &  7, 
p.   ]2. 

*McKinIoy,  p.  :-;"  vefors  to  Neill.  Virf/inia  Carolnriim,  "?,0  note  I;  Weeks,  S.  B., 
The  IJislory  of  ycfiro  Suffraf/e  in  the  Soxtli,  Pol.  Sci.  Quar.  IX,  p.  G73,  refers 
to  Summer's  Works  X,  p.  lOo. 

•>  Weeks,   Jbnl. 

''.McKinley.  p.  ',)]-2. 

ojbid..  pp.   100,   101. 

[8] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  9 

liad  never  yet  been  determined,  and  which  provided  that 
"every  free  white  man  and  no  other,"  who  had  the  proper 
qualifications,  should  be  entitled  to  vote/*^ 

No  express  exclusion  of  Africans  from  the  suffrage  existed  in 
the  laws  of  any  other  colony  before  the  Revolution.  It  is  not 
improbable  tliat  here  and  there  people  willingly  acquiesced  in 
the  casting  of  an  occasional  ballot  by  a  black  man  or  mulatto. 
Yet  the  presence  of  slavery  in  every  colony,  and  the  general 
and  deep-seated  prejudice  against  negroes  which  then  existed, 
make  it  seem  impossible  that  courts  and  law  making  authori- 
ties consciously  assumed  or  permitted  negro  suffrage.^^ ;  prob- 
ably few  of  the  small  number  of  free  negroes  acquired  the 
requisite  qualifications  to  vote  even  if  admitted  on  a  par  with 
the  whites,  and  certainly  the  omission  of  race  discriminations 
was  not  the  result  of  popular  agitation  in  favor  of  colored  in- 
habitants. 

First  State  Constitutions 

No  such  generalization  can  be  made  concerning  the  omission 
of  color  distinctions  from  the  suffrage  clauses  of  the  first  state 
constitutions.  The  Virginia  Constitution  of  1776  provided: 
"The  right  of  suffrage  in  the  election  of  members  for  both 
Houses  shall  remain  as  exercised  at  present."  The  law  of 
1762,  therefore,  remained  in  force  until  the  Constitutional  con- 
vention of  1830  adopted  the  words:  "Every  white  male  citi- 
zen."^- In  South  Carolina,  the  election  laws  of  1721,  1745,  and 
1759  had  continued  the  restriction  of  the  right  to  vote  to  white 
men,^"  and  the  constitution  of  1776  provided:  "The  qualifica- 
tions of  electors  shall  be  the  same  as  required  by  law."^*  The 
constitution  of  Georgia,  adopted  in  1777,  confined  the  suffrage 


^"Ibid.,  p.  172;  Weeks,  p.  074;  also  Bishop,  Historn  of  Elections  in  Am. 
Colonies.  279-287. 

"  Prof.  Hart  says :  "In  the  colonies  freed  Negroes,  like  freed  indentured 
white  servants,  acquired  property,  founde'd  families  and  came  into  political  com- 
munity, if  they  had  thp  energy,  thrift  and  fortune  to  get  together  the  necessary 
property."  Ret?rence  lost.  He  gives  no  evidence,  however ;  and  even  after  the 
Revolution,  as  will  be  spon  later,  the  negro's  right  to  vote  equally  with  white 
men  was  far  from  established. 

"Poore.   Charters  and   Conslitutions,  II,   pp.    1910  and   1917. 

"McKinley.  pp.  15.S,  154-5,'5,  157;  Weeks,  p.  673. 

"Poore,  II,  p.   1618. 

[9] 


10  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

to  "male  white  inhabitants."^''  The  Delaware  legislature,  in 
1787,  passed  "an  act  to  prevent  the  exportation  of  slaves  and 
for  other  purposes,"  of  which  the  eighth  section  provided  that 
manumitted  slaves  should  not  vote,  hold  office,  or  give  evidence 
against  whites,^"  and  the  constitution  of  1792  employed  the 
language,  "Every  white  free  man,"  to  describe  the  voter.  No 
other  state  constitution  excluded  negroes  from  the  electorate 
during  this  period.  As  constitutions  were  framed  by  all  the 
remaining  states  except  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  it 
would  seem  that,  with  the  example  of  certain  constitutions  that 
forbade  negro  voting  before  them,  they  did  not  leave  out  the 
color  discrimination  through  inadvertence  or  oversight.  It  is 
inferable  from  the  Delaware  law  of  1787  which  excluded 
manumitted  slaves,  that,  if  a  negro  were  bom  free  and  were 
otherwise  qualified,  the  legislators  intended  to  let  him  vote.  A 
similar  inference  is  to  be  drawn  from  a  Maryland  law  of  June, 
1783,  entitled  "an  act  to  prohibit  the  bringing  slaves  into  the 
State,  "^^  which  provided  that  slaves  might  be  manumitted 
under  certain  conditions,  and  "that  no  colored  person  freed 
thereafter,  nor  the  issue  of  such  should  be  allowed  to  vote,  or 
to  hold  office,  or  to  give  evidence  against  any  white,  or  to  en- 
joy any  other  right  of  a  freeman  than  the  possession  of  prop- 
erty and  redress  at  law  or  equity  for  injury  to  person  or  prop- 
erty."i« 

An  interesting  and  curious  evidence  of  the  African's  appre- 


'-' lUd.,  I.  p.  :;79. 

1"  Hurd,  J.  C,  The  Larc  oj  Frceaom  and  Boiidape  in  the  United  States,  Vol. 
II.   p.   74. 

"  Laios  of  Maryland,  1682-1799,  vol.  II.  1785-1799,  Ch.  67  Sec.  5,  passed 
Dee.  'i\,  1796.  The  book  is  not  paged,  but  the  laws  are  arranged  in  chron- 
ological order.  See  also  in  volume'  I.,  ch.  23.  passed  June  1,  178.",  whore  the 
title  of  the  act  only,  is  given. 

"Brackett,  J.  K..  The  Ner/ro  in  Maryland,  p.  186;  also  Weeks,  p.  677. 
Neither  gives  authority  for  the  statement.  Weeks  probably  quote'd  from 
Braekett.  as  ho  does  on  other  points.  The  law  of  Dec.  .".1,  1796.  referred  to 
in  the  preceding  note,  provides  that  no  manumitted  slave,  "shall  be  entitled 
to  the  privilege  of  voting  at  elections,  or  of  being  elected  or  appointed  to  any 
office  of  profit  or  trust,  or  to  give  evidence  against  any  white  person,  or  shall 
be  recorded  as  compe't<nt  evidence  to  manumit  any  slave  petitioning  for  free- 
dom." No  mention  is  made  of  the  insue  of  manumitted  slaves,  and  the  pro- 
visions differ  in  other  respects  from  those  nuoted  by  Braekett.  If  Braekett  had 
mcre'ly  given  the  wrong  date  for  the  law  of  1796.  ho  would  not  have  departed 
so  widely  from  its  provisions.  I,  therefore,  infer  that  ho  had  access  to  another, 
and  as  the  detailed  nature  of  his   citation  would   indicate,   authoritative  source. 

[10] 


OLBRICII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  11 

elation  of  the  elective  franchise,  even  in  slavery,  which  must 
have  made  some  of  the  whites  consider  the  question  of  negro 
suffrage,  is  found  in  a  peculiar  slave  custom  in  colonial  Rhode 
Island  and  Connecticut.  In  both  colonies  the  imitative  negroes 
followed  the  example  of  the  whites  on  election  day  and  elected 
a  governor.  In  Rhode  Island,  where  slaves  were  still  numerous, 
each  town  held  its  own  election  to  which  the  slaves  looked  for- 
ward with  great  anxiety  and  which  is  said  to  have  been  marked 
by  as  violent  and  acrimonious  party  spirit  as  among  the  whites. 
It  was  a  day  of  festivity  for  the  blacks ;  the  owners,  in  accord- 
ance with  their  wealth,  were  expected  to  furnish  their  slaves 
with  money  and  fine  apparel  and  the  negroes  assumed  power 
and  pride  and  rank  according  to  their  master's  station  in  life. 
As  the  number  of  slaves  diminished,  these  mock  elections  be- 
came less  general  and,  toward  the  end  of  the  18th  century, 
finally  disappeared.^''  In  Connecticut,  the  earliest  evidence  of 
the  custom  is  the  record  that,  in  1766,  after  having  held  the 
office  ten  years.  Governor  Cuff  resigned  in  favor  of  John 
Anderson.  There  negro  elections  continued  into  the  nineteenth 
century  after  the  negroes  were  freed,  and  their  last  governor 
held  office  down  to  within  a  few  years  of  the  civil  war.  The 
notices  of  these  elections  in  early  days  were  addressed  to 
"negro  men,"  but  later  to  "colored  gentlemen."  On  the  day 
of  the  inauguration  of  governor  of  the  state,  they  followed  the 
whites  to  the  capital,  enjoyed  the  military  parades  and  the 
procession  to  hear  the  election  sermon,  elected  a  governor, 
chosen  for  physical  prowess,  and  a  lieutenant-governor,  in- 
augurated them  with  great  ceremony  and  with  shouting,  laugh- 
ing and  singing,  listened  to  an  address  from  their  governor,  ate 
a  dinner,  and  then  danced  until  noon  of  the  next  day.'"''' 

Massachusetts,  1780 

The  best  proof  that  the  omission  of  a  color  discrimination 
with  regard  to  the  right  to  vote  was  not  accidental  is  found  in 


"  Johnson,  W.  D.,  Slavertj  in  Rhode  Island,  Rhode  Island  Hist.  Soc.  Pith., 
new  s'-rips,  vol.  2,  1894,  p.  139-140.  He  quotes  Updike,  "History  of  the  Narra- 
fjanseit  Church"  p.  77. 

2»  Connecticut  as  a  Colony  and  as  a  State,  Forest  Morgan,  Ed. -in-Chief, 
volume  II,  p.   259. 

[11] 


12  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

the  case  of  Massachusetts.  James  Otis  in  his  speech  on  the 
Writs  of  Assistance  in  1761,  liad  made  John  Adams  shudder  at 
the  consequences  of  his  strong  assertion  of  negro  rights.^^ 
Anti-slavery  sentiment,  however,  was  growing,  and  its  progress 
was  accelerated  by  the  doctrines  of  Revolutionary  times,  but 
the  champions  of  the  negro  were  not  strong  enough  to  secure 
for  him  the  elective  franchise.  The  question  of  negro  suffrage 
came  out  in  the  legislature-convention  of  1777-1778,  and,  after 
a  long  debate,  the  opponents  of  negro  equality  were  victorious, 
and  retained  in  the  suffrage  clause  the  words:  "Excepting 
Negroes,  Indians  and  IMulattoes."--  Great  interest  attaches  to 
the  discussion  as  the  first  recorded  argument  by  Americans  on 
the  subject  of  negro  suffrage.  The  friends  and  opponents  of 
negro  equality  ridiculed  each  other's  ideas  in  doggerel  verse. ^^ 
Dr.  Gordon  asks  if  it  is  not  ridiculous,  inconsistent,  and  unjust 
to  exclude  freemen  from  voting  because  of  their  color.-*  "Why 
not  disqualified  for  being  long-nosed,  short-faced,  or  higher  or 
lower  than  five  feet  nine?  A  black,  tawny,  or  reddish  skin  is 
not  so  unfavorable  an  hue  to  the  genuine  son  of  liberty,  as  a 
tory  complection."-'^  He  added  that  "the  disqualification  of 
mulattoes  conflicted  with  the  proposal  in  the  Confederation, 
that  the  free  inhabitants  of  each  state  shall,  upon  removing 
into  any  other  State,  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  immunities 
belonging  to  the  free  citizens  of  such  State."  Mr.  John  Bacon, 
a  member  of  the  convention,  published  the  substance  of  his 
speech  for  negro  rights,  in  which  he  answered  the  arguments  of 
those  who  opposed  negro  equality.""  The  suffrage  discrimina- 
tion, he  declared,  sapped  "the  foundation  of  that  liberty  which 
we  are  now  defending,"  it  violated  the  fundamental  principle 
of  no  taxation  without  representation;  and  "the  persons  ex- 
cepted in  the  clause  now  before  the  Convention,  would  be  justi- 
fied in  making  the  same  opposition  against  us  which  we  are 


=»  Moore,   G.    H..   Notes   on   the  History  of  Slavery   in  Massachusetts,  p.    110. 

^IMil.,  pp.   187-191. 

=^  In  the  Independent  Vhroniele  and  Universal  Advertiser  of  January  29,. 
February  12th  and  19th  1778,  referred  to  by  Moore,  p.  186. 

^Jan.    8,    1778,    Moore,    p.    180. 

"  If  the  word  "rebel"  were  put  in  place  of  "tory,"  the  last  sentence  could 
bA  paralleled  by  many   score  from  the  discussions  of  the  Reconstruction  period. 

2«Sept.  2;{,  1779,  Moore,  pp.  187-191. 

[12] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  13 

making  against  Great  Britain."  To  the  reasoning  that  the  pro- 
tection which  the  laws  gave  negroes  was  equivalent  to  the  taxes 
they  paid,  he  answered  that  Great  Britain  supported  her  claim 
to  tax  America  on  precisely  the  same  ground,  and  that  negroes 
had  been  given  no  voice  in  deciding  whether  the  value  of  the 
privileges  secured  to  them  by  the  laws  was  equivalent  to  the 
taxes  which  were  collected  from  them.  ''We  set  a  price  upon 
our  own  commodity,  and  oblige  them  to  give  it  whether  they 
will  or  not."  On  the  other  side,  it  had  been  said  that  Great 
Britain  had  desired  to  tax  America  without  taxing  herself, 
while  Massachusetts  was  taxing  negroes  and  white  people 
equally;  but  what  warrant,  lie  asked,  did  the  negroes  have, 
when  taxed  "'as  persons  who  do  not  belong  to  our  community," 
that  they  would  not  be  made  to  bear  exorbitant  taxation.  He 
denied  that  negroes  were  foreigners ;  most  of  them,  he  de- 
clared, were  born  in  this  country;  the  present  constitution 
guaranteed  them  equal  rights  and  privileges  which  could  not 
be  wrested  fi'om  them  except  by  mere  power. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  argument  that  he  mentioned  as 
having  been  advanced  by  his  opponents  was:  "That  by  erasing 
this  clause  out  of  the  constitution,  we  shall  greatly  offend  and 
alarm  the  Southern  States. ' '  This  he  denied :  ' '  Will  they  be 
offended  or  alarmed  that  we  do  not  violate  those  essential 
rights  of  human  nature  which  they  have  taken  the  most  effec- 
tual pains  to  establish  and  secure."  The  same  argument  is  re- 
ferred to  by  Dr.  Gordon  in  a  letter  of  April  2nd,  1778,-'^  in 
which  he  said:  "It  hath  been  argued,  that  were  negroes  admit- 
ted to  vote,  the  Southern  States  would  be  otlfended .  .  .  .  This 
would  be  to  suppose  the  Southern  States  as  weak  as  the  argu- 
ment." In  this  letter  he  replied  to  another  almost  equally  im- 
portant watchword  of  the  opponents  of  negro  riglits,  that 
negro  suffrage  would  induce  negro  immigration:  "Will  not  the 
Negroes  be  as  likely  to  crowd  into  the  State,  if  they  may  be 
free,  though  they  are  debarred  the  right  of  voting?"  If  any 
are  afraid  that  the  Bay  inhabitants  will, ...  at  some  distant 
period,  become  Negroes,  Indians  or  IMulattoes,  let  the  General 
Court  guard  against  it  by  future  Acts  of  the  State."     This  ar- 


==' Published   in   The  Continental  Jounufl.   .Vpiil   Oth,    1778,  Moore,   p.   192. 

[13] 


14  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

gument  Avas  made  and  answered  again  and  again  m  the  North- 
ern States  whenever  negro  suffrage  was  discussed  during  the 
next  centuiy.  He  said  the  word  "mulatto"  should  have  been 
defined;  there  was  danger  that  whites  with  the  slightest  taint 
of  negro  or  Indian  blood  would  be  excluded.  "The  complex- 
ion of  the  5th  Article,"  declared  Dr.  Gordon,  "is  blacker  than 
any  African;  aod  if  not  altered,  will  be  an  everlasting  reproach 
upon  the  present  inhabitants;  and  evidence  to  the  world  that 
they  mean  their  own  rights  only,  and  not  those  of  mankind  in 
their  cry  for  liberty, '  '-** 

When  the  Constitution  was  submitted  to  the  people,  there 
was  great  difference  of  opinion  among  them.  Boston  and  Cam- 
bridge voted  it  down  unanimously,  but  not  appearantly  because 
of  the  suffrage  clause.  Dartmouth  favored  the  equal  recogni- 
tion of  the  negroes,  but  at  the  same  time  recorded  that  there 
was  "no  Negro,  Indian  or  Mulatto"  among  her  voters.-**  The 
constitution  was  rejected,  but  the  exclusion  of  negroes  from  the 
right  to  vote  had  little  to  do  with  this  result  and  the  attitude 
of  the  convention  which  inserted  the  discrimination  probably 
represented  the  attitude  of  the  people  at  large.  It  is  true  that 
perhaps  from  a  sense  of  shame  no  color  distinction  was  put  into 
the  constitution  of  1780.  Yet  the  friends  of  the  negro  failed 
even  to  secure  a  constitutional  provision  abolishing  slavery,^*' 
and  it  was  only  through  a  series  of  court  decisions  during  the 
following  decade,  in  which  the  courts  gave  the  broadest  inter- 
pretation to  the  clause  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  which  asserted: 
"All  men  are  born  free  and  equal,"  that  the  Massachusetts  ne- 
groes were  all  set  free.^^  It  is  probable  that  in  most  localities 
popular  sentiment  kept  negroes  from  voting,  even  when  they 
had  the  requisite  property  qualification."-  In  the  town  of  Dart- 
mouth, which,  in  1778,  when  it  had  no  colored  voters,  declared 
in  favor  of  equal  recognition  of  negroes  with  respect  to  the 
elective  franchise,  the  colored  inhabitants  resisted  the  payment 


"'Moore,  pp.   193,   11)4. 
^  Moore,  pp.   195,   196. 

2"  Locke.  M.  S.,  Anti Ulavery  in  America,   (1619-1808),  Radcliffe  College  Mon- 
Offraphn,  No.  II.  p.   80. 

•'"  Ibid.,  p.  80 ;  Moore,  pp.  200  et  seq. 
»' Moore,,  p.  196. 


[14] 


OLBRICII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  15 

of  taxes  and,  in  April  1781,  they  applied  to  the  selectmen  to  lay- 
before  the  voters  of  the  town  the  question  "whether  all  free 
negroes  and  mulattoes  shall  have  the  same  privileges  in  this 
said  town  of  Dartmouth  as  the  white  people  have,  respecting 
places  of  profit,  choosing  of  officers,  and  the  like,  together  with 
all  other  privileges  in  all  cases  that  shall  or  may  happen  to  be 
brought  in  this  our  said  town  of  Dartmouth.""'^  It  is  probable 
that,  as  in  other  states,  negroes  gradually  and  through  custom 
acquired  the  privilege  of  voting  here  and  there  in  Massachu- 
setts but  not  in  all  places.  By  1795,  some  of  them  actually  did 
vote,  and  one  mulatto  had  served  as  town  clerk  in  a  country 
town.  But  opinion  was  divided  as  to  whether  men  of  color 
were  legally  entitled  to  the  privileges  of  an  elector."*  Evi- 
dence of  the  prejudice  that  must  have  kept  some  blacks  from 
voting  is  found  in  a  law  of  1788,  which  warned  all 
Africans  or  negroes,  unless  they  were  subjects  of  the  Emperor 
of  Morocco  or  could  show  that  they  were  citizens  of  one  of  the 
United  States  by  a  certificate  from  the  Secretary  of  the  state 
of  which  they  were  citizens,  to  depart  from  the  Commonwealth 
within  two  months.  If  they  refused,  they  were  to  be  subjected 
to  imprisonment  and  whipping  and  the  punishment  was  to  be 
indefinitely  repeated  until  they  learned  obedience.^''  The  only 
recorded  enforcement  of  this  law  occurred  in  1800.  The  police 
collected  a  long  list  of  the  names  of  persons  coming  within  the 
scope  of  the  law  and  published  the  names  in  the  Massachusetts 
Mercury  for  September  16,  and  warned  the  negroes  mentioned 
to  leave  the  state  by  October  10.  One-fourth  of  the  prescribed 
negroes  were  members  of  an  African  Benevolent  Society  whose 
avowed  purpose  was  to  behave  themselves  ''as  true  and  faith- 
ful citizens  of  the  Commonwealth."  Obviously  the  police  ex- 
ceeded the  authority  given  them  by  the  law ;  but  it  is  possible 
that  this  drastic  action  was  stimulated  by  a  temporary  fear  of 
a  negro  uprising."" 


^^  Moore,  p.  198,  quotes  Nell's  Colored  Patriots  of  the  Revolution,  87-00. 
Moore  says  he  finds  no  evidence  of  Nell's  statement  that  these  proceedings 
established  the  negro's  right  to  vote. 

»*  Moore,    199,   refers  to  Mass.  Hist.  Soc.   Coll.  Vol.   I,  sor.  IV,   p.   208. 

35  Moore,  p.   228. 

'"^  Moore,   pp.  2:U-230. 


[15] 


16  bulletin  op  the  university  of  wisconsin 

New  York,  1785 

In  New  York  as  in  Massachusetts,  most  of  the  people  opposed 
negro  suffrage  and  a  minority  favored  it.  On  the  21st  of  I\Iarch, 
1785,  the  New  York  Council  of  Revision  vetoed  a  bill  entitled: 
"An  act  for  the  gradual  abolition  of  slavery  within  this  State." 
The  members  of  the  council  present  were  Governor  Clinton,  Jus- 
tice Hobart  and  Chancellor  Livingston.  The  latter  wrote  out 
their  objections.  1.  Because  the  last  clause  of  the  bill  enacts 
that  no  negro,  mulatto  or  mustee  shall  have  a  legal  vote  in  any 

case    whatsoever ''The    bill   having   in    other  instances 

placed  the  children  that  shall  he  horn  of  slaves  in  the  rank  of 
citizens,  agreea])le  both  to  the  spirit  and  the  letter  of  the  Con- 
stitution, they  are  as  such  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  citi- 
i^ens,  nor  can  they  be  deprived  of  these  essential  rights  without 
shocking  those  principles  of  equal  liberty  which  every  page  in 
that  Constitution  labors  to  enforce.  2.  Because  it  holds  up  a 
doctrine  which  is  repugnant  to  the  principles  on  which  the 
United  States  justify  their  separation  from  Great  Britain,  and 
either  enacts  what  is  wrong  or  supposes  that  those  may  right- 
fully be  cliarged  with  the  burdens  of  government  who  have  no 
representative  share  in  imposing  them.  3.  Because  this  class 
of  disfranchised  and  discontented  citizens,  who  at  some  future 
period  may  be  both  numerous  and  wealthy,  may  under  the  di- 
rection of  ambitious  and  factious  leaders,  become  dangerous  to 
the  State  and  effect  the  ruin  of  a  Constitution  whose  benefit 
they  are  not  permitted  to  enjoy."  4.  Because  it  "lays  the 
foundation  of  an  aristocracy  of  the  most  dangerous  and  malig- 
nant kind;"  the  term  "mustee"  is  indefinite;  let  but  a,few  col- 
ored people  intermarry  with  the  w^hites,  and  in  two  hundred 
years  hardly  a  fiftieth  of  the  people  will  be  without  some  share 
oi  negro  blood  and  all  the  rest  wdll  be  excluded  from  the  elec- 
tive franchise.  5.  "Because  the  last  clause  of  the  bill  being 
general,  deprives  those  black,  mulatto,  and  mustee  citizens 
irlio  liave  therefore  heen  entitled  to  vote,  of  this  essential  priv- 
ilege ;  and  under  tlie  idea  of  political  expediency,  without  their 
having  been  charged  with  any  offence,  disfranchises  them  in 
direct  violation  of  the  established  rules  of  justice,  against  the 
letter  and  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  and  tends  to  support  a 

[16] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  17 

doctrine,  which  is  inconsistent  Avith  the  most  obvious  principles 
of  government,  that  the  Legislature  may  arbitrarily  dispose  of 
the  dearest  rights  of  their  constituents." 

In  spite  of  this  vigorous  protest,  the  Senate  passed  the  bill 
over  the  veto,  but  the  required  two-thirds  majority  could  not 
be  secured  in  the  House.  The  minority  in  favor  of  negro  suf- 
frage was,  therefore,  by  no  means  inconsiderable.  It  is  a  not- 
able fact  that,  suffrage  excepted,  the  bill  "placed  the  children 
that  shall  be  born  of  slaves  in  the  rank  of  citizens;"  and  the 
fifth  objection  indicates  that  probably  a  few  free  negroes  or 
mulattoes  were  in  the  habit  of  voting  without  molestation. 
One  must  conclude  that,  at  this  early  date,  the  sentiment  in  fa- 
vor of  the  negro  was  fully  as  strong  in  New  York  as  in  Massa- 
chusetts.-"' 

Pennsylvania,  1790 

Tn  the  Pennsylvania  constitutional  convention  of  1789-1790,  a 
debate  arose  on  using  the  word  "Avhite"  to  describe  the  elec- 
tors. The  use  of  this  word  was  strongly  opposed  by  Alliert  Gal- 
latin and  it  was  left  out.'^^     Whether  Gallatin  made  his  motion 


•''■street.  .\.  B.  :  The  Council  of  Reviftion  of  the  State  of  New  York,  its 
Histori) ;  a  Histori/  of  tho  Courts  Kith  trhich  its  members  irere  connected  ; 
Biographical  Sketches  of  its  Members;  and  its  Vetoes,  pp.  268-260.  Referred 
to  by  Jeffrey  R.  Braekett  in  "The  Status  of  the  Slave;"  in  .T.  F.  Jameson,  Essoijk 
in  the  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States,  p.  298.  This  in  turn  is 
referred  to  by  M.  S.  Locke:  Anti  Slaveru  in  the  U.  S.,  p.  12S.  Mr.  Olbrich's 
conclusion  that  the  sustaining  of  the  veto  was  due  entirelj'  to  the  desire  for 
netrro  suflrage.  does  not  necessarily  follow. 

•*  I  believe  the  evidence  fuU.v  warrants  these  statements.  In  the  convention 
of  lS.S7-.38  ;  one  of  the  members,  Mr.  M'Cahen,  said  he  had  been  informed  that 
a  committee  of  the  Convention  of  1780-00  had  presrtited  a  suffrage  article  con- 
t.iinins  the  word  "white"  ;  that  Albert  Gallatin  thought  "white"  was  too  in- 
definite because  it  might  exclude  men,  who.  like  himself,  were  of  dark  com- 
plexion, and  that  on  his  suggestion  it  was  stricken  out.  Pa.  Convention  debates. 
18ns,  III..  87.  The  same  account  is  given  by  f'hief-.Tustice  Gibson  in  his  opinion 
in  the  case  of  Hobbs  rs.  Fnc/q.  I>rought  in  18:'.7  and  decided  in  18."8.  Watts' 
Reports.  VI.,  .5r>0.  Another  member  of  the  convention  of  18S7-.38.  Mr.  f^'pe. 
said  that  he  had  attended  some  of  the  meetings  of  the  convention  of  1780-00: 
"On  one  of  those  occasions  I  found  the  floor  occupied  by  a  member,  whose 
appearance  and  peculiar  French  accent  were  well  calculated  to  rivet  my  atten- 
tion— his  visage  was  sharp,  his  e^'e  keen,  his  manner  animated,  his  complexion 
sallow.  .\s  he  spoke,  his  body  inclined  forward — his  right  arm  was  extended, 
and  his  forefinger  Iwnt  as  if  to  grajiple  with  his  subject.  He  was  declaiming 
against  the  introduction  of  the  word  'white'  as  a  qualification  for  a  voter — 
flnd  said  among  other  things,  that  if  the'  word  were  so  introduced,  he  did  not 
Inow  but  he  himself  might  be  excluded  fi'om  voting.  The  whole  circumstance 
made   a  deep  impression  on   mv   mind.     I  inquired  the  nrme  of  the  member  and 

[17] 


18  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

and  his  speech  in  behalf  of  Caucasians  of  dark  complexion  or 
on  behalf  of  Africans,  the  omission  of  the  color  distinction  did 
not  give  negroes  an  undoubted  and  established  right  to  vote. 
It  was  the  recollection  of  a  member  of  the  Convention  of  1837- 
38,  Mr.  Hopkinson,  that  soon  after  the  adoption  of  the  consti- 
tution of  1790,  the  question  of  the  negro's  right  to  the  elective 


received  for  answer,  that  he  was  Albert  Gallatin,  delegate  from  the  county 
west  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains."  Pa  Con.  Debales,  1838,  IX.,  97-98.  Another 
member,  Mr.  Darlington,  produced  a  letter  in  which  Gallatin  confirmed  the 
prevailing  impression.  The  letter,  which  is  not  printed  in  He"nry  Adam's 
edition  of  the  Works  of  Gallatin,  nor  listed  by  him  among  the  unpublished  letters 
of   Gallatin,   is   as   follows ; 

New  York,  December   21,   1837. 

Sir  : — Yours  of  the  19th  instant,  has  been  received.  Y'ou  apply  to  me  for 
information  respecting  the  share  I  took  forty-seven  years  ago  in  framing  that 
article  of  the  constitution  of  Pennsylvania,  which  regulates  the  right  of 
suffrage. 

"I  have  already  beeii  addressf^d  on  that  subject  in  a  general  way,  but  not 
particularly  in  reference  to  the  point  to  which  you  allude.  I  cannot,  in  my 
seventy-seventh  year,  sufliciently  rely  on  an  impaired  memory,  to  assert  posi- 
tive'ly  what  took  place  in  the  course  of  a  discussion  embracing  a  great  variety 
of  amendments  approved,  rejected,  repeatedly  modified  or  withdrawn.  Yet  I 
have  a  lively  recollection  that,  in  some  stage  of  the  discussion,  the  proposHion 
pefnding  before  the  convention,  limited  the  right  of  suffrage  to  'free  white  citi 
zens'  &c  and  that  the  word   'white'  was  stricken  out  on   my   motion. 

Permit   me,  however,   to  observe  that   the  minutes  of   the  convention,   both 
proper  and   in  the  committee  of  the  whole,  were  published  at  the  time,  and  are 
incontrovertible  evidence   of  all   the   facts   on   which   evidence   may  be  wanted. 
It    seems   almost    impossible    that    some    copies    should    not    have    been    preserved 
among  the  legislative   records,   or   in   some   public   or   private   library. 

I   am   respectfully. 

Your   obediciit  servant 
ALBERT   GALLATIN. 
Mr.    .Tosi'pl)    Parish,    Philadelphia. 

Pa.  Convention  drbatcs,  1837-38, 
X.  45. 
The  journals  of  the  convention  of  1789-90  contain  no  reference  whatever  to 
any  such  proceedings  as  Mr.  Gallatin  me-ntions  in  his  letter  ;  but  Mr.  Darlington 
pointed  out  that  for  about  a  week  in  December,  1790,  the  minutes  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  whole  merely  record  for  each  day  that  the  committee  reported 
further  progress  and  asked  leave  to  sit  again.  Ibitl.,  44.  A  few  moments  ex- 
amination of  the  journal  will  convince  anyone  that  Mr.  Darlington  was  right 
and  Mr.  Gallatin  mistaken  in  accepting  the  journal  as  conclusive  evidence.  See 
"Conventions  and  Constitutions  of  Pennsiilnania,  Harrisbnrg,  182.5."  163-166. 
Henry  Adams  found  among  (iallatin's  paper.*:  relating  to  the  convention  of 
1789-90  ;  "A  mtmorandum  of  his  motion  in  regard  to  the  right  of  suflfrag->.  by 
virtue  of  which,  every  freeman  who  has  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one  years 
and  been  a  resident  and  inhabitant  during  one  year  next  before  the  days  of 
election ;  every  naturalized  freeholder,  every  naturalized  citizen  who  has  been 
assessed  for  state  or  county  taxes  for  two  years  before  election  day,  or  who 
had  resided  ten  years  successively  in  the  state,  should  be  entitled  to  the  sufiPrage, 
paupers  and  vagabonds  only  being  excluded."  Adams,  H.  The  Life  of  Albert 
GaltatiH,  p.  81. 

[18] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  19 

franchise  was  raised  at  a  heated  election  in  Philadelphia,  that 
the  judges  of  the  election  took  the  opinion  of  three  lawyers, 
two  of  whom  had  been  members  of  the  convention  of  1789-90, 
and  that  all  three  concurred  in  affirming  that  negroes  were  en- 
titled to  vote."^  In  deciding  a  case  which  was  brought  in  1837, 
Chief  Justice  Gibson  cited  as  an  authoritative  precedent  an  un- 
reported decision  of  about  the  year  1795,  in  which,  according 
to  the  remembrance  of  James  Gibson,  Esquire,  of  the  Phila- 
delphia bar  who  had  declined  an  invitation  to  be  concerned  in 
the  argument,  the  High  Court  of  Errors  and  Appeals  had  de- 
cided that  negroes  did  not  have  the  right  of  suffrage.*"  The 
question  seems  to  have  been  little  thought  of  for  more  than 
forty  years  and  was  still  undecided  in  1838. 

The  Articles  of  Confederation 

The  central  government  also  was  obliged  to  deal  with  the 
negro  question.  Wlien  the  Continental  Congress  was  discuss- 
ing tlie  Articles  of  Confederation,  New  Jersey  objected  to  the 
proposed  ninth  article,  which  provided  that  the  requisitions  for 
the  laud  forces  should  be  apportioned  among  the  several  states 
according  to  the  number  of  their  ivhite  inhabitants.  The 
grounds  of  objection  were  stated  in  "The  Representation  of  the 
Legislative  Council  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,"*^  which  Con- 
gress took  into  consideration  on  June  5,  1778.  Since  "all  men 
are  created  equal,"  it  follows  that  "all  the  inhabitants  of  every 
society,  be  the  color  of  their  complexion  what  it  may,  are  bound 
to  promote  the  interests  thereof  according  to  their  respective 
abilities."  In  the  slave  states,  the  performance  of  nearly  all 
manual  labor  by  the  negroes  leaves  more  whites  at  liberty  to  do 
military  service  than  in  the  free  states.  Therefore  requisi- 
tions of  land  forces  should  be  in  proportion  to  all  the  inhabi- 
tants. The  motion  to  strike  out  ivhite  was,  however,  lost.^-  A 
more  interesting  controversy  arose  on  the  same  day  over  the 
fourth  article  which  provided  that  "the  free  inhabitants  of 
each  of  these  States shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges 


"^  Pa.  Con.  debates,  1S;^7-3S,  X..  p.  97. 

**nohhs  V.  Fogg,  p.   6,    Watts,  p.   553. 

*^  Secret  Journals   vf  Congresn,  Domestic  Affairs,   I.,   pp.   374,   37J 

«/6i<Z.,  p.  381. 

[19] 


20  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

and  immunities  of  free  citizens  in  the  several  states/'  South 
Carolina  moved  to  insert  "white"  between  the  words  "free  in- 
habitants," and  also  to  insert  after  "several  states"  the  words 
"according  to  the  law  of  such  states  respectively  for  the  gov- 
ernment of  their  own  free  white  inhabitants."  Both  these 
amendments  were  defeated;  eight  states  voted  against  them, 
one  state  was  divided  and  two  states  voted  for  them.*^  Con- 
gress therefore  was  not  willing  to  refuse  negroes  the  "privi- 
leges and  immunities  of  free  citizens."  That  the  right  to  vote 
was  included  among  them  was,  as  we  have  seen,  the  opinion  of 
Dr.  Gordon  of  Massachusetts:  but  the  question  was  not  then  a 
settled  one.  The  Confederation  Congress,  however,  had  to  pass 
on  the  qualifications  of  electors  in  organizing  the  Northwest 
Territory;  and  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  no  color  discrimina- 
tion was  inserted.^'* 

Influence  of  Declaration  of  Independen'ce 

Tt  is  evident  that  the  Revolutionary  notions  that  all  men  are 
created  equal,  that  taxation  without  representation  is  tyranny, 
and  that  all  governments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  con- 
sent of  the  governed,  had  a  considerable  effect  on  the  legisla- 
tion that  dealt  with  the  negro  in  this  period.  Black  men  from 
every  state  served  in  the  American  armies;*^  this  fact  no  doubt 
had  some  influence  in  legislative  councils.  It  is  practically 
certain  that  the  vast  majority  of  white  people  in  every  colony 
would  have  been  miAvilling  to  let  negroes  vote  in  considerable 
numbers,  but,  as  long  as  the  question  of  negro  suffrage  was 
largely  theoretical,  as  long  as  the  absence  of  restrictions  was 
likely  to  occasion  no  real  inconvenience,  many  law  makers  and 
constitution  makers  were  averse  to  marring  their  work  by 
provisions  inconsistent  with  the  watchwords  of  the  Revolution, 
and  therefore  permitted  themselves  to  be  influenced  by  senti- 
ments similar  to  those  which  made  the  framers  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  unwilling  that  its  text  should  be  sullied  by  the 
name  of  slaverv. 


*3Ibid.,  p.  382. 

"Poore,    I.,   p.   4a0. 

«  Livermore,  G.,  An  Historical  Research,  etc.,  Mass.  Hist.  8oc.  Proc,  vol.  IV., 
pp.  86-248.  Aug.  1S62 :  Nell,  W.  C  (Colored).  Tfie  Colored  Patriots  of  th6 
American   Kevolution. 

[20] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  21 


CHAPTER  II 
A  PERIOD  OF  REACTION,  1790  TO  1838 

The  first  three  States  admitted  to  the  Union  under  the  Con- 
stitution came  in  with  no  color  distinction  in  their  suffrage  pro- 
visions, Vermont  in  1790,  Kentucky  in  1792,  and  Tennessee  in 
1796.  Kentucky's  constitution  of  1792,  declared  that  all  men, 
when  they  form  a  social  compact,  are  equal ;  but  the  new  con- 
stitution of  1799  recognized  equality  in  the  foundation  of  a  so- 
cial compact  only  in  the  case  of  "/ree  men,"  and  confined  the 
right  to  vote  to  free  white  male  citizens.^  Two  years  later 
Maryland,  which  had  passed  in  1783  and  re-enacted  in  1796,  a 
law  forbidding  emancipated  slaves  to  exercise  the  elective 
franchise,-  adopted,  by  a  bill  which  passed  both  houses  of  the 
legislature  in  November  1801,  a  constitutional  amendment 
which  provided  that  only  free  white  male  citizens  should  be 
electors.-^  This  alteration  was  confirmed  in  November  1802, 
and  the  word  ''white"  was  retained  in  another  suffrage  amend- 
ment adopted  in  1809  and  confirmed  in  1810.*  Perhaps  the 
amendment  of  1801-3802  was  not  strictly  enforced;  for  as  late 
as  1810,  evidence  was  given  in  Baltimore  county  court  that  a 
certain  free  black  had  been  in  the  habit  of  voting  at  elections ; 
and  it  is  recorded  that  Greenbury  Morton,  a  cousin  of  the  fa- 
mous negro  clock-maker,  Benjamin  Banneker,  did  not  know  of 
the  law  of  1809  until  he  attempted  to  vote  at  the  polls  in  Balti- 
more County,  and  that  when  his  vote  was  refused,  "he  ad- 
dressed the  crowd  in  a  strain  of  true  and  passionate  eloquence, 


1  Poore   I.,  pp.   651,  654.   658,   670. 

2  See  ante  p.  10. 

3  Scharf,  J.  T.,  History  of  Marylancl..  Vol.  II.,  p.  611. 

*  Maxey's  Laws  of  Maryland,  Revision  of  1811,  Vol.  III.  pp.  53.  54.  See 
also  Revision  ordered  In  1817,  Vol.  III.,  pp.  XXVII,  XXVIII ;  and  Vol.  IV,  Ch.  8-3, 
laws  of  1809,  and  Ch.  .33  of  laws  of  1810. 

[21] 


22  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

which  kept  the  audience,  that  the  election  had  assembled  for 
him,  in  breathless  attention  while  he  spoke.  "^ 

Ohio,  1802 

In  1802,  the  same  year  that  the  Maryland  amendment  was 
confirmed,  a  constitution  was  adopted  in  Ohio.  It  cannot  be 
definitely  determined  whether  free  negroes  had  ever  voted  there 
under  the  suffrage  provision  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.  One 
writer  says  that  under  the  territorial  government  they  voted 
for  delegates  to  the  convention  which  framed  the  constitu- 
tion.^ Yet  in  his  dissenting  opinion  in  the  case  of  Thacker 
V.  Haivk  in  1842,  Justice  Read,  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
Ohio,  declared  that  it  was  a  fact  familiar  to  old  inhabitants 
of  the  territory  that  "no  negro,  or  person  of  any  degree  of 
black  blood,  was  ever  permitted  to  vote"  during  the  territorial 
period. '^  During  the  session  of  the  convention,  various  negro 
questions  were  warmly  and  even  bitterly  discussed.^  Accounts 
varv%  but  it  is  certain  that  the  disfranchisement  of  negroes 
was  carried  only  by  a  very  narrow  majority.  It  is  said  that 
at  first  an  article  was  adopted  without  a  color  distinction, 
but  that  on  reconsideration,  the  discrimination  was  adopted 
by  the  casting  vote  of  the  president  of  the  convention,  Mr. 
Tiffin,  a  Virginian,  who  afterward  became  the  first  governor 
of  the  state  .^ 

New  Jersey,  1807 

During  all  these  years.  New  Jersey  had  been  having  a 
unique  experience.  Her  constitution  of  1776  provided  "that 
all  inhabitants  of  this  colony"  who  had  the  requisite  property, 


5  Brackett,  J.  R.,  The  Negro  in  Maruland,  p.  1S6 ;  Memoirs  of  Benjamin  Ban- 
neker,  read  May  1,  1845,  by  John  H.  Latrobe,  Esq.,  p.  6,  Maryland  Hist.  Soc. 
Pub.,   1845. 

"  Smith,  W.  H.,  A  Political  .History  of  Slavery,  I.,  p.  1.3. 

'  11    Ohio,  p.   376. 

8  Transactions  of  the  Historical  and  Philosophical  Society  of  Ohio,  Part 
Second,  Vol.  I.,  p.  111.     Letter  of  Judge  Burnet. 

^  Ihid.,  p.  109;  Smith,  W.  H.,  Op.  cit;  King,  R.,  Ohio,  in  American  Common- 
wealths; Ohio  Con.  Reports.,  1850-51,  11.,  p.  1180;  Cong.  Olole,  3  S.  40  C, 
App,   97. 

[22] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  23 

^ge,  and  residence  qualifications  should  be  entitled  to  vote.^^ 
This  clause  was  interpreted  literally.  An  act  of  1790  regulat- 
ing elections,  used  the  words  "he  or  she"  in  referring  to 
voters/^  and  a  similar  law  of  1797  provicied  that  "every 
voter  shall  openly  and  in  full  view  deliver  his  or  her  ballot 
(which  shall  be  a  single  written  ticket,  containing  the  names 
of  the  person  or  persons  for  whom  he  or  she  votes)  to  the  said 
judges."^-  It  was  recognized  by  the  Supreme  Court  that 
negroes  were  entited  to  vote.  In  1794,  the  court  held  a  cer- 
tain election  illegal  because  "the  bare  word  of  one  man  that 
he  was  qualified, — the  affirmation  of  a  black  man  that  he 
had  been  manumitted  was  held  sufficient  to  entitle  these  per- 
sons to  vote."  The  implication  is  that  the  suffrage  would  not 
be  with-held  from  a  negro  who  could  give  clear  evidence  that 
he  had  been  emancipated.  In  1797,  there  were  seventy-five  votes 
cast  by  women  in  a  single  town.  AVomen  voted  generally 
throughout  the  state  in  the  presidential  election  of  1800,  and 
in  1802  a  candidate  for  the  Legislature  from  Hunterdon  county 
carried  a  closely  contested  election  by  the  votes  of  several  female 
negroes.  At  a  local  election  in  Essex  county,  in  1870,  for  the 
location  of  a  county  seat,  women  as  well  as  men  were  implicated 
in  extensive  frauds.^"  At  last,  the  Legislature  decided  to  inter- 
pret the  constitution  more  strictly.  February  22,  1807,  a  law 
was  passed  witli  the  following  preamble:  "Whereas  doubts  have 
been  raised,  and  great  diversities  in  practice  obtained  through- 
out the  state  in  regard  to  the  admission  of  aliens,  females  and 
persons  of  color,  or  negroes  to  vote  in  elections,  as  also  in  regard 
to  the  mode  of  ascertaining  the  qualifications  of  voters  in  respect 
to  estate. — And  whereas,  it  is  highly  necessary  to  the  safety, 
quiet,  good  order  and  dignity  of  the  state,  to  clear  up  the  said 
doubts  by  an  act  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  deelara- 


>»Poore,    ir.,   p.    IMll. 

"  \  paragraph  from  the  Now  York  Tribune,  quoted  in  ilcrherson's  History 
of  Heconstruction,  p.  2.5S,  and  re-quoted  in  Foster's  Commentaries  on  the  Con- 
stitution, Vol.   I.,   320. 

'-•Statutes  of  New  Jersey,  pp.  1S21,  275;  or  Patterson's  Laws  of  New  Jersey, 
Kewark  MDCCC,  pp.  320 ;  Cooley,  H.  S.,  A  Study  of  Slavery  in  New  Jersey, 
JoJins  Hopkin's  Historical  Studies,  Vol.  XIV.,  p.  464  ;  Law  Reports,  I,  Coxe,  p. 
244.  Mr.  Cooley's  page  reference  and  the  date  he  assigns  do  not  correspond 
-with  the  edition   of  Coxe's  Reports,  which   I   consulted. 

"  McPherson,  E.,  History  of  Rcconstruciion.,  p.  258. 

[23] 


24  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

tory  of  the  true  sense  and  meaning  of  the  constitution,  and  to 
ensure  its  just  execution  in  these  particulars,  according  to  the 
intent  of  the  framers  thereof."  In  view  of  these  considera- 
tions it  was  enacted  that  no  one  should  vote,  "unless  such  person 
be  a  /'Te,  white,  male  citizen."^*  The  color  discrimination  was 
repeated  in  a  law  of  June  1,  1820,^''  and  in  1844  it  was  made 
a  part  of  the  constitution/*^ 

Connecticut,  1818,  Maine,  1819,  Massachusetts,  1820 

The  only  New  England  State  that  forbade  negro  suffrage 
was  Connecticut.  In  the  Convention  of  1818,  the  Committee 
to  whom  the  subject  of  drafting  a  Constitution  was  referred, 
reported  a  suffrage  article  which  was  adopted  apparently  with- 
out serious  discussion.  This  article  permitted  only  white  male 
citizens  to  come  into  the  electorate  after  the  ratification  of  the 
Constitution,  but  provided  that  all  who  had  previously  been 
admitted  "freemen,  according  to  the  existing  laws  of  this 
state,"  should  be  electors.^'  The  latter  clause  was  understood 
by  contemporaries  to  include  negroes  who  had  been  exercising 
the  right  to  vote.^*  Connecticut's  negro  population  was  8,041 
with  267,161  white  persons,^^  and  it  is  possible  that  negro  voters 
were  becoming  inconveniently  numerous ;  in  IMassachusetts, 
where  there  w-ere  only  6,868  colored  people  with  516,419  white 
people,  it  may  have  been  easier  to  be  liberal.  In  the  jMassachusetts 
convention  which  sat  from  November  15,  1820,  to  January  9, 
1821,  no  reference  was  made  to  negro  suffrage,  although  the 
subject  of  qualifications  for  voting  was  discussed  at  length. ^^ 

IMaine  had  already,  more  than  a  year  before,  shown  evidence 
of  the  New  England  feeling  on  the  negro  question.  The  consti- 
tutional convention  was  in  session  from  the  11th  to  the  29th  of 


^*  Lairs  of  the  male  of  New  Jersey,  compiled  and  publishod  nnder  the  author- 
ity of  the  Leffislature,   by  Jos.   Bloomfield,   Trenton,    ISll,   p.    33. 

^^Statnfes  of  yew  Jersey,  published  in   1821,  p.   741. 

^"Poore.   ir..   p.    131.^. 

"Journal  of  the  Convention  of  JS/S,  printed  in  1S73  by  order  of  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  pp.  46,  !)0 ;  Poore,  I.,  p.  263. 

^«Mr.  Jay  in   the  N.  Y.  Convention  of  1821,  Report,  p.  1S4. 

^^  I?f(itis1if0l  view  of  the  popiilation   of  the  I'nited  States,  Wash..    183.5. 

^0  Convention  Report,  pp.  115,  116,  118,  121-25,  185,  186,  187,  222,  223, 
249.   250,   277. 

[24] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  2& 

October,  1819.  On  the  20th,  Ur.  Vance  of  Calais,  moved  to 
insert  "Negroes"  after  "Indians  not  taxed,"  in  the  suffrage 
article.  Mr.  Plolmes,  who  later  as  one  of  jNlaine's  first  United 
States  Senators,  took  part  in  the  debate  in  Congress  on  the  Mis- 
souri question,  opposed  the  motion  with  a  brief  and  vigorous 
speech.  "The  'Indians  not  taxed'  ",  he  said,  "are  excluded 
not  on  account  of  their  color,  but  of  their  political  condition. 
They  are  under  the  protection  of  the  State,  but  they  can  make 
and  execute  their  own  laws.  They  have  never  been  considered 
numbers  of  the  body  politic.  But  I  know  of  no  difference  be- 
tween the  rights  of  the  negro  and  the  white  man. — God 
Almighty  has  made  none. — Our  Declaration  of  Rights  has  made 
none.  That  declares  that  'all  men'  (without  regard  to  colors) 
are  born  equally  free  and  independent."  Two  speeches,  which 
were  not  reported,  were  made  in  favor  of  the  motion,  but  it  was 
lost,  and  the  Constitution  was  adopted  without  a  discrimination 
against  Africans.-^  In  discussing  the  right  of  one  member  to 
his  seat,  the  question  arose  whether  the  provision  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts constitution,  that  a  representative  must  reside  in  the 
town  he  represents,  apjolied  to  a  member  of  the  convention. 
It  was  repeatedly  asked,  according  to  Judge  Thacher,  wdiether 
the  convention  would  not  have  the  right  to  turn  out  a  minor 
or  black,  if  any  town  should  happen  to  send  one.  No  doubt  it 
was  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  presence  of  a  black 
man  as  a  member  of  the  convention  would  be  intolerable.  Judge 
Thacher  alone  seems  to  have  had  the  courage  and  disposition 
to  say  that  he  did  not  believe  the  convention  would  have  a 
right  to  exclude  such  a  representative  on  account  of  the  color 
of  his  skin.--  Only  929  negroes  lived  in  Maine,  in  1820,-^  and 
there,  as  elsewhere,  negro  eriuality  was  much  more  a  matter  of 
vei'bal  consistency  than  of  real  feeling. 

Elaine,  Vermont,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  were  the  only 
states  that  came  into  the  Federal  Union  without  a  suffrage 
discrimination  against  negroes  until  the  admission  of  Nebraska 


-^  The  Oeh'iies.  Fe-ioliitinv.^,  arul  Oll;rr  Procecdiiws  of  tlie  Convention  of 
Delegates,  etc..  .Tcremiah  Perloy,  Portland  1820,  p.  95 ;  see  also  Journal  of  the 
Uonalittitional  Convcntinn  of  the  District  of  Maine,  etc.,  1819-20,  printed 
by  Fuller  and  Fuller  in  1856. 

==  Dehntcs,  etc.,  p.  64. 

23  Statistical   View,  18:J5,  p.   16. 

[25] 


26  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

in  1867.  Ever^'  one  of  the  other  new  states,  north  or  south, 
forbade  black  men  to  vote.  Of  the  four  that  did  not,  Kentucky 
adopted  a  color  discrimination  in  1799,  and  Tennessee  in  1834, 
while  Vermont  and  Maine  never  had  any  kind  of  discrimina- 
tion against  Africans  in  their  constitutions. 

Federal  Legislation 

The  Federal  government  in  1789  re-enacted  the  Ordinance 
of  1787  with  its  impartial  suffrage  provision.-*  In  1800,  that 
part  of  the  ordinance  which  related  to  the  organization  of  a 
general  assembly,  and  which  included  the  suffrage  clause,  was 
applied  to  Mississippi  Territory-^'  and  to  Indiana  Territory.-" 
In  1805,  the  provisions  of  the  Mississippi  act  were  extended 
to  the  Territory  of  Orleans,  the  boundaries  of  which  were  then 
about  the  same  as  those  of  the  present  state  of  Louisiana.-'^ 
The  frame  of  government,  including  the  suffrage  provision,  out- 
lined in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  was  re-enacted  for  the  Terri- 
tory of  Michigan  in  1805,-^  and  for  the  Territory  of  Illinois 
in  1809.-^  This  was  the  last  time  until  after  the  Civil  War  that 
any  act  providing  for  a  territorial  government,  which  contained 
a  suffrage  clause,  did  not  exclude  negroes  from  the  right  to 
vote.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that,  unlike  most  of  the  later 
statutes  which  prescribed  merely  who  should  vote  at  the  first 
election  and  left  the  fixing  of  permanent  suffrage  qualifications 
to  the  territorial  legislature,  the  Ordinance  of  1787  and  the 
extensions  and  re-enactments  of  it  which  have  been  mentioned, 
settled  who  should  be  voters  in  all  territorial  elections  and  left 
nothing  to  the  discretion  of  the  local  government. 

The  enabling  acts  for  Ohio  in  1802,"*'  and  for  Indiana  in 
1816,"^  contained  no  color  distinction  in  designating  who  should 
vote  for  delegates  to  the  constitutional  convention ;  but  the  word 


'■''*  I'nore     I.,    p.    4">;>. 

^IMd.,  II,  p.  1051. 

'<^Iliid.,  I.,  p.  4.^4. 

2'/6irf.,  I.,  p.  696. 

^liid.,  p.  982. 

'^Ihid.,  I.,  p.  4.3.5. 

«»/6?VL,  II.,  p.  1453. 

3'  Ibid.,  I.,  p.  497. 

[26] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO   SUFFRAGE  27 

""white"  was  inserted  in  the  acts  for  Louisiana  in  1811,  ■'-  for 
Mississippi  in  1817,^^  for  Illinois  in  1818,^*  for  Alabama  in 
1819,  and  in  all  subsequent  enabling  acts  before  the  Reconstruc- 
tion period.  But  these  were  not  the  first  important  race  dis- 
criminations enacted  by  the  Federal  government.  The  word 
^' white"  presented  a  barrier  to  the  negro  in  the  naturaliza- 
tion law,  approved  INIarch  26,  1790,^^  in  the  militia  law  of  May 
8,  1792,^^''  and  in  the  law  approved  May  3,  1802  to  incorporate 
the  City  of  Washington,  which  confined  the  elective  franchise  to 
''free  white  male  inhabitants."^^  By  an  act  of  1804  providing 
for  the  government  of  Louisiana  and  Orleans,  onh^  "free  male 
white  persons"  were  permitted  to  serve  as  grand  or  petit  jurors 
in  the  courts  of  the  Territory.'-^  By  an  act  of  1808,  "extending 
the  right  of  suffrage  in  the  Mississippi  territory,"  it  was  pro- 
vided that  only  whites  should  be  entitled  to  vote  for  representa- 
tives to  the  general  Assembly.""  This  Mississippi  law  Avas  the 
first  territorial  act  that  contained  the  discrimination  against 
negroes  with  respect  to  the  elective  franchise,  as  the  Illinois 
law  of  the  next  year  was  the  last  that  was  free  from  it. 

The  ^Missouri  Debate,  1820 

This  dry  enumeration  brings  us  to  the  discussions  on  the  ad- 
mission of  ^Missouri,  in  which  the  omnipresent  negro  suffrage 
question  made  its  appearance.  On  Febiniary  28,  1820,  in  the 
House  of  Representatives.  Mr.  Taylor  moved  an  amendment  to 
the  ^Missouri  bill.  Immediately  John  Randolph  moved  to  insert 
the  word  "white,"  "a  matter — of  some  importance  yet  to  those 
on  the  south  side,"  and  proposed  to  speak  at  length,  when  IMr. 
Tajdor  accepted  his  amendment.  After  some  discussion  of  the 
bill,  Mr.  Allen  of  Massachusetts  moved  to  strike  the  word 
"white"  from  the  suffrage  clause  of  the  enabling  act,  and  made 


«'Ibid.,  1.,  p.   699 
'^Ibid.,  II.,    p.    105.3. 
^Ibid.,  I.,  p.  436. 

■>^  Annals  of  Conpress.  Vol.  II.,  pp.  2264  or  2205-6;  U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large, 
Poston    1845.  Vol.  I.,  p.  10.3. 

'■^Annals,   ril,  p.   1892;   Statutes,  T,  p.   271. 
^''Annais,  XT.  p.   K'.TT;  Statutes,  TI.  p.   196. 
^Poore,   I.,  p.  698. 
^Poore,  II.,  p.  1052. 

[27J 


28  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

a  speech  in  favor  of  his  motion.  Mr.  Kandolph  replied,  speak- 
ing for  an  hour  and  a  half.  When  the  vote  was  taken,  Mr. 
Allen  was  the  only  man  who  rose  in  support  of  his  amendment.*" 
On  the  7th  and  8tli  of  December,  1820,  there  occurred  in 
the  Senate  a  debate  on  that  clause  of  the  Missouri  Constitution 
which  made  it  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to  prohibit  the  immi- 
gration of  free  negroes  into  the  State.  An  amendment  provid- 
ing that  Congress  did  not  assent  to  this  clause  was  rejected  by 
the  votes  of  all  but  nine  senators.  Northern  men  continued 
the  argument  with  the  assertion  that  the  section  excluding  free 
blacks  violated  the  Constitutional  provision  that  "the  citizens 
of  each  State  shall  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immuni- 
ties of  citizens  in  the  several  States."  In  IMassachusetts,  New 
Hampshire  and  Vermont,  Africans  had  equal  rights  with  v/hite 
men,  and,  under  the  Constitution,  they  could  not  be  deprived  of 
their  equal  rights  if  they  should  desire  to  settle  in  Missouri. 
jMr.  Smith,  of  South  Carolina,  replied  by  shoM'ing  that  nearly 
all  the  Northern  States  had  some  legal  discrimination  against 
free  negroes,  that  some  of  them  had  laws  against  negro  immigra- 
tion from  other  states,  and  that,  in  the  last  session  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania legislature,  a  motion  had  been  made  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  exclusion  laws.  The  Southerners  found  a  strong 
ally  in  Senator  Holmes  of  Maine,  who,  in  the  Maine  Convention 
of  1819,  had  cited  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  prove 
that  negroes  ought  to  be  permitted  to  vote,  and  who  now  made 
a  speech  which  adds  to  the  evidence  that  the  presence  of  eman- 
cipated slaves  was  hardly  more  welcome  in  the  North  than  in 
the  South.  "Their  vices  and  frailties  render  them  an  incum- 
brance, if  not  a  nuisance,  wherever  they  reside.  It  is  just  that 
the  evils  arising  from  such  a  population  should  be  sustained  by 
those  who  have  had  the  benefit  of  their  labor,  and  who  have 
contributed  in  some  measure  to  their  degradation."  "To  be 
forced,  against  our  will,  to  receive  free  blacks  from  the  slave- 
holding  States,  is  a  doctrine  that  I,  as  a  Northern  man,  do  not 
so  fully  relish."  He  added  that  it  was  absurd  to  suppose  that 
the   framers   of   the    Constitution   intended   to   sanction    negro 


<" Benton,   T.   H.,  ATiridfjement   nf  Dehatcs,   VI.,   p.   561;   Annals   of  Congress, 
Vol.  XXXVI.,  pp.  l.")55,  1556.     The  substance  of  the  speeches  is  not  reported. 

[28] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  29 

equality.  "Gentlemen,  with  all  their  humanity,  to  be  obliged 
to  sit  in  this  Senate  by  a  black  man,  would  consider  their  rights 
invaded.  "^^  The  Maine  Convention  that  gave  negroes  the  right 
to  vote  had  also  admitted  that  the  presence  of  Africans  as  mem- 
bers of  a  legislature  would  be  intolerable.  That  men  who  made 
these  frank  confessions  of  race  prejudice  should  champion  ne- 
gro suffrage  indicates  how  powerfully  their  minds  were  affected 
hy  the  Revolutionary  principles  of  liberty  and  equality. 

New  York,  1821 

In  New  York,  in  1785,  two-thirds  of  the  senate  and  a  majority 
of  the  assembly  were  in  favor  of  forbidding  negroes  to  vote; 
but  the  suffrage  was  preserved  to  black  men  by  a  veto  of  the 
Council  of  Revision.'*-  On  the  5th  of  April,  1811,  the  Council, 
comprised  of  Governor  Tompkins,  Chancellor  Lansing,  ''"liief 
Justice  Kent,  Justices  Thompson,  Spencer,  Van  Ness  and  Yates, 
vetoed  a  bill  entitled  "An  act  to  prevent  frauds  at  elections,  and 
for  other  purposes. ' '  The  obligations,  written  by  Chancellor  Lan- 
sing, were:  that  the  bill  provided  that  "persons  of  color"  must 
produce  certificates  of  their  freedom  at  all  elections ;  that  the 
description  of  "persons  of  color"  was  too  indefinite  and  might 
be  made  to  include  all  gradations  of  mixture  between  the  Afri- 
can and  the  white  man;  that  no  provision  was  made  to  compel 
witnesses  to  testify  before  officers  who  are  authorized  to  take 
proof  of  a  negro's  freedom;  and  that  the  bill  established  the 
principle  "that  all  black  men  and  men  of  color  are  presumed 
to  be  slaves  until  they  prove  that  they  are  free."*^  The  bill 
passed  the  Senate  over  the  veto  but  failed  to  secure  two-thirds 
of  the  Assembly.  At  the  same  session,  however,  another  bill 
became  law  which  likewise  provided  that,  in  order  to  vote,  a 
negro  must  prove  his  freedom,  but  which  remedied  the  objection 
that  no  adequate  means  were  given  a  black  man  to  secure  proof 
of  his  emancipation.  This  law  was  entitled  "An  act  to  prevent 
frauds  at  elections  and  slaves  from  voting."^*    In  1814,  a  new 


"Ronton.   AhrUlgement,   VI.,   pp.   662.   664,   669.   670,   672-680,   691. 

*-  Ante,  p.  17. 

«  Street,  Neic  York  Council  oj  Revision,  pp.  362-363,  364. 

*^  Laics  of  New  York;  Revision  of  1813,  II.,  p.  253;  Hard,  II.,  p.  54. 


[29] 


30  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP   WISCONSIN 

section  applying  only  to  New  York  City,  provided  that  certifi- 
cates of  freedom  should  be  recorded  in  the  office  of  the  registrar ; 
and  that  a  copy  of  the  record  should  be  the  certificate  of  free- 
dom which  a  free  black  was  required  to  produce  at  elections 
before  he  could  votc*^  The  obvious  intent  was  to  put  difficul- 
ties in  the  way  of  a  negro  elector;  but  that  such  a  law  was 
passed,  shows  that  negroes  must  have  continued  to  vote  in 
small  numbers  after  the  veto  of  1785,  and  helps  explain  why 
the  problem  of  negro  suffrage  came  before  the  New  York  Con- 
vention of  1821. 

The  old  New  York  constitution  of  1777  required  a  property 
qualification  of  twenty  pounds  in  order  to  vote  for  members  of 
the  Assembly.^**  i\Iost  free  negroes  were  therefore  excluded  from 
the  elective  franchise,  although  it  may  be  that  negroes  as  well  as 
whites  voted  illegally.  It  was  said  that,  in  1813,  the  votes  of 
three  hundred  free  negroes  in  New  York  City  decided  the  elec- 
tion in  favor  of  the  Federalists  and  determined  the  character 
of  state  legislature.*"  If  this  statement  is  true,  the  fact  may 
account  for  the  law  of  181-4  for  the  recording  of  certificates  of 
freedom.  But  only  one  hundred  and  sixty-three  negroes,  it  was 
asserted,  voted  in  New  York  at  the  spring  election  of  1821.*® 
There  were  more  than  five  hundred,  however,  who  tried  to  vote^ 
and  it  was  estimated  that  if  all  property  qualifications  were  abol- 
ished, there  would  be  twenty-five  hundred  negro  electors  in  the 
city  of  New  York  alone.*'' 

"When  the  convention  of  1821  met,  it  was  a  practical  certainty 
that  the  property  qualifications  for  voters  would  be  abolished. 
The  convention,  therefore,  had  to  consider  the  question  whether 
the  liberal  suffrage  provision  should  extend  to  blacks  as  well 
as  to  whites.  The  first  proposition  to  be  considered  was  an  article 
limiting  the  suffrage  to  white  men.  The  debate  began  Septem- 
ber 19,  1821.  Those  who  favored  restriction  argued  that  it  was 
not  a  question  of  rights.  ''That  all  men  are  free  and  equal, 
according  to  the  usual  declarations,"  said  Mr.  Ross,  "applies 


*^  Laws  oj  ls!ew  York,  Thirty-IScventh  Session,  pp.  94,  95;   Hurd,  II.,  p.  55. 

«Poore,    II.,    1334. 

*'  1821   Con.  Report,  p.  212. 

*»Ib'.d.,  p.  197,  Gen.  Tallmadge. 

« Ibid.,  pp.  198,  199. 

[30] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  31 

to  tlieni  only  in  a  state  of  nature,  and  not  after  the  institution 
of  civil  government,  for  then  many  rights,  flowing  from  natural 
equalit}^  are  necessarily  abridged,  with  a  view  to  produce  the 
greatest  amount  of  security  and  happiness  to  the  whole  com- 
munity. ' '""  General  Root  explained  his  views  of  the  social  com- 
pact: "In  the  formation  of  a  social  compact,  which  generally 
grows  out  of  exigency,  when  the  people  are  but  a  little  removed 
from  their  barbarous  and  rude  state,  they  are  not  particular 
in  enumerating  the  principles  upon  which  they  thus  unite, 
but  when  they  have  become  more  enlightened,  they  will  under- 
take to  say  who  shall  belong  to  their  family.  "^^  Colonel  Young 
denied  that  the  right  of  voting  was  a  natural  right:  ''A  natural 
right  is  one  that  is  born  with  us.  No  man  is  born  twenty-one 
years  old."  If  there  were  a  natural,  inherent  right  to  vote,  it 
ought  to  be  extended  to  women  and  children.^-  Chief  Justice 
Spencer  declared  "that  the  community  has  a  right  to  secure  it& 
own  happiness  and  prosperity,  and  that  we  are  authorized  to 
adopt  all  means  that  shall  conduce  to  that  end.  "^'^  The  ques- 
tion, therefore,  was  altogether  one  of  expediency;  and  it  was 
inexpedient  and  dangerous  to  let  negroes  vote  in  any  consider- 
able numbers.  They  could  not  vote  discreetly  and  indepen- 
dently. "They  have  no  just  conception  of  civil  liberty.  They 
know  not  how  to  appreciate  it  and  are  consequently  indifferent 
to  its  preservation."^*  They  lacked  intelligence.  They  were 
born  in  slavery  and  would  vote  according  to  the  behests  of  rich 
men  for  whom  they  worked.  "That  man  who  holds  in  his 
hands  the  subsistence  of  another,  will  always  be  able  to  control 
his  will."  Negro  suffrage  would  enable  the  rich  man  to  control 
many  votes  and  would  therefore  foster  an  aristocracy.^^  Others 
argued  that  negroes  certainly  ought  not  to  be  given  the  elective 
franchise  when  it  is  with-held  from  the  Indians,  "the  original 
and  only  rightful  proprietors  of  our  soil,"  who  were  far  superior 
to  negroes  in  intellingence  and  worth. ^®    Black  men  were  without 


^Ihid.,  p.  180. 

5'  Ibid.,  p.  18.5. 

''-Ibiff,  p.   189. 

^Ibid.,  p.  19.5. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  180.     Ross. 

^^  Ibid.,  p.  197,  Chief-.7ustice  Spencer. 

''Ibid.,  p.  181,  Ross.  p.  199,  Livingston. 

[31] 


32  BULLETIN    OP    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

education :  many  of  the  most  intelligent  could  not  write  their  own 
names.^"  They  were  a  degraded  race,  partly  indeed  through  the 
white  man's  fault ;^^  the  number  of  negroes  in  jails  and  peni- 
tentiaries was  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  negro  population  of 
the  State.^^  Africans  were  excluded  from  the  militia  and  were 
not  called  upon  to  defend  the  country.''"  There  was  a  universal 
prejudice  against  black  men :  ''This  distinction  of  color  is  well 
understood.  It  is  unnecessary  to  disguise  it,  and  we  ought  to 
shape  our  constitution  so  as  to  meet  the  public  sentiment. ' '  Ne- 
groes were  not  permitted  to  have  social  intercourse  with  whites, 
nor  be  elevated  to  ottice,  nor  asked  to  serve  on  juries.''^  Yet  if 
they  should  be  permitted  to  vote  they  would  soon  make  the  un- 
speakable demand  to  be  represented  in  the  halls  of  legislation 
by  men  of  their  own  color.*'-  It  w- as  true  that  only  a  few  blacks 
were  voting;  but  emancipated  slaves  were  tlocking  into  the 
state,  particularly  into  the  metropolis,**^  and  the  abolition  of 
property  qualilieations  wouldi  let  loose  upon  the  city  of  New 
York  an  indescribable  horde  of  ignorant,  degraded  negro  elec- 
tors.«-^ 

The  opponents  of  disfranchisement  argued  that  it  would  vio- 
late the  second  section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution. The  riglit  of  suffrage  was  one  of  the  privileges  which 
one  state  could  not  deny  to  the  citizens  of  another.*'"'  Rufus 
King  took  this  view.  ' '  The  question  was  not  a  pressing  one  now, 
for  emancipated  slaves  were  not  citizens;  but  their  children 
would  be.  As  certainly  as  the  children  of  any  white  man  are 
citizens,  so  certainly  the  children  of  black  men  are  citizens ;  and 
they  may  in  time  raise  up  a  progeny,  which  will  be  disastrous 
to  the  other  races  of  this  country."*""'  Chancellor  Kent  merely 
expressed  the  opinion  that  the  constitutionality  of  disfranchise- 


"/6i<f.,  p.  198.  Livingston. 
^Ihid.,  p.  198.  Ch.  J.   Spencer. 
^^Ihid.,  p.  191,  CoL   Young. 
«o/6i(f.,  p.  185,  Ross,  Gen.  Root, 
•n  Ibid.,  p.  190,  Col.  Young. 
«=  Ibid.,  p.  181,  Ross. 
''''Ibid.,  p.  196,  C.   J.  Spencer. 
"*  Ibid.,  p.  199,  Livingston. 
«=76i<7.,  p.  184,  Jay. 

^Ibid.,  p.  192.     Also  The  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Riifiis  King,  edited  by 
Cliiis.   K.  King,   VI.,   p.   405,  400. 

[32] 


OLBRICII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  33 

ment  was  doubtful."'  He  also  thought  the  word  "white"  too 
sweeping  and  indefinite.  "The  Hindoo  and  Chinese  are  called 
yellow — the  Indian  red !  Shall  these  be  excluded  should  they 
come  to  reside  among  us?  Great  efforts  were  now  making  in 
the  Christian  world  to  enlighten  and  improve  their  condition,  and 
he  thought  it  inexpedient  to  erect  a  barrier  that  should  exclude 
them  forever  from  the  exercise  of  this  important  right."**®  No 
one  else  expressed  principles  so  broadly  inclusive ;  but  several 
were  disposed  to  deny  that  the  African  was  intrinsically  inferior 
to  the  Caucasian,  though  slavery  might  temporarily  have  degrad- 
ed him.  "It  does  not  become  those  who  have  acted  so  unjustly 
toward  them  to  urge  the  results  of  that  injustice  as  a  reason  for 
perpetuating  their  degradation,"  said  ]\Ir.  Van  Vechten.*'^  Mr. 
Peter  Augustus  Jaj',  the  most  fiery  champion  of  the  negro  in 
the  convention,  referred  to  the  doctrine  "that  the  intellect  of  a 
black  man  is  naturally  inferior  to  that  of  a  white  one  "  as  "  com- 
pletely refuted  and  universally  exploded",  and  did  not  think  it 
worth  while  to  disprove  it.  Slavery  indeed  made  negroes  im- 
provident and  worthless ;  but,  under  the  influence  of  schools  and 
churches,  they  were  making  rapid  progress ;'"  while  the  prejudice 
of  whites  against  blacks,  which  the  association  of  slavery  with  a 
dark  complexion  had  produced,  was  already  dying  away,  and 
would  disappear  when  slaverj^  should  become  unknown.'^  It 
might  be  true  tliat  some  negroes  would  obey  "the  dictates  of  the 
purse  proud  aristocrats  of  the  day,  on  whom  they  depend  for 
bread";  but  their  fault  would  be  no  greater  than  that  of  "many 
thousands  of  white  fawning,  cringing  sycophants."  Moreover 
it  might  confidently  be  hoped  that  the  "redeeming  spirit  in 
liberty"  would  ultimately  regenerate  these  unfortunate  people. "- 
In  order  that  free  institutions  might  be  fostered,  the  interests 
of  every  class  should  be  attached  to  the  government ;  but  to  dis- 
franchise the  Africans  would  "deprive  them  of  every  inducement 
to  become  respectable  members  of  society,"  would  be  ordaining 


8' 1821   Uoii.  Keport,  p.   lUl. 

««/6W., 

'^Tbid.,  p.  19.3. 

^rbid.,  p.  184. 

^^IMd.,  p.  201. 

'nbid.,  p.    188.   R.  Clarke. 


[33], 


34  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

that  they  become  "fugitives,  vagabonds,  and  outcasts,"  would 
compel  them  and  their  posterity  to  be  the  enemies  of  the  whites, 
and  cause  them  to  view  the  white  man's  political  institutions 
"with  distrust,  jealousy,  and  hatred."'^ 

No  one  of  the  negro's  champions  pretended  to  regard  him  as 
a  desirable  citizen.  It  was  unnecessary,  Mr.  Jay  argued,  to 
stain  the  Constitution  with  an  odious  discrimination  merely  to 
exclude  a  race  that  constituted  only  one-fortieth  of  the  popula- 
tion of  New  York  City,  and  whose  numbers  had  remained  sta- 
tionary while  the  whites  had  multiplied.  If  black  men  were 
numerous,  it  might  be  dangerous  to  enfranchise  or  even  eman- 
cipate them.'^*  "I  lament  as  much  as  any  gentleman,"  said 
Mr.  Clarke,  "that  we  have  this  species  of  population  amongst 

us.     But  we  have  them  here  without  any  fault  of  theirs. 

I  would  do  them  justice,  and  leave  the  consequences  to  the 
righteous  disposal  of  an  all-wise  and  merciful  Providence.  "^^ 
These  apostles  of  equality  asserted  that  the  prejudice,  which 
they  themselves  shared  and  which  everywhere  prevailed,  was 
wrong.  "Do  our  prejudices  against  their  colour  destroy  their 
rights  as  citizens?"  inquired  Mr.  Van  Vechten.  "Whence  do 
those  prejudices  proceed?  are  they  founded  in  impartial  reason, 

or  in  the  benevolent  principles  of  our  holy  religion? People 

of  color  are  our  fellow  candidates  for  immortality .     The 

same  path  to  future  happiness  is  appointed  for  them  and  us."^** 
"How  sir,"  Mr.  Jay  exclaimed,  "can  that  argument  be  an- 
swered by  reason  which  is  not  founded  on  reason?"  Merely  to 
gratify  a  prejudice,  the  Convention  had  no  right  to  establish  a 
degraded  and  discontented  caste  or  to  condemn  the  negroes  to 
be  aliens  in  their  native  land."^  "However  we  may  scorn,  and 
insult  and  trample  upon  this  unfortunate  race  now,  the  day 
was  fast  approaching  when  we  must  lie  down  with  them  in  that 
narrow  bed  appointed  for  all  the  living."^®  The  disfranchise- 
ment of  Indians  was  on  a  different  basis :  they  were  members 

"•^Ihid.,  p.  188. 

'*/6id.,  p.   184-5. 

'^IMd.,  p.  189. 

'•76tU,  p.  194. 

"Tliid.,  p.  201. 

''*Ihid.,  p.  365.  '  I    .  ' 

[34] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  35 

of  tribes  with  which  treaties  were  made  as  with  other  nations,'^ 
but  negroes  were  born  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens  of  the 
whites.  They  were  excluded  from  the  militia,  but  they  had  been 
welcome  volunteer  soldiers  when  actual  war  occurred,  both  in 
the  Revolution  and  the  War  of  1812.  No  one  would  stand  in 
the  ranks,  shoulder  to  shoulder  with  negroes  in  time  of  peace: 
But  when  the  hour  of  danger  approaches,  your  "white"  militia 
are  just  as  willing  that  the  man  of  color  should  be  set  up  as  a 
mark  to  be  shot  at  by  the  enemy,  as  to  be  set  up  themselves.®" 
Disfranchising  the  negro  would  be  too  much  of  a  concession  to 
prejudice,  too  great  a  surrender  to  the  spirit  of  slaver^'.  It 
would  be  regarded  as  a  victory  by  the  Southerners  who  had 
opposed  negro  rights  in  the  Missouri  debate  in  Congress,  and 
the  proposed  exclusion  of  black  men  from  the  elective  franchise 
would  be  greeted  by  the  slaveholders  with  "a  shout  of  triumph 
and  a  hiss  of  scorn.  "®^ 

On  the  20th  of  September  a  vote  was  taken  and  the  word 
"white"  was  stricken  out,  63  to  59.®-  What  sentiments 
moved  the  majority?  No  doubt  the  arguments  reviewed  had 
much  influence,  especially  the  argument  that  it  was  unnecessary 
to  "stain"  the  constitution  when  the  number  of  blacks  was  so 
small.  A  few  days  later,  in  the  discussion  of  another  phase  of 
the  suffrage,  Martin  Van  Buren  delivered  a  florid  period  on 
"taxation  and  representation".  These  words,  he  said,  "were 
never  heard  in  our  halls  of  legislation,  without  bringing  to  our 
recollections  the  consecrated  feelings  of  those  who  won  our  lib- 
erties, or  without  reminding  us  of  everything  that  was  sacred 

in  principle .     They  offered  the  strongest  evidence  of 

their  continued  hold  upon  our  feelings  and  our  judgments,  by 
the  triumph  they  effected,  over  the  strongest  aversions  and 
prejudices  of  our  nature — on  the  question  of  continuing  the  right 
of  suffrage  to  the  poor  degraded  blacks. '  '®^  As  soon  as  the  vote 
was  taken,  General  Root  renewed  an  amendment  which  he  had 
offered  on  the  previous  day  which  excluded  from  the  electorate 


•»76jrf.,  p.   200. 

M/ftu/.,  p.   187,   R.   Clarke. 

8>  IJ}id.,  p.   184.  .Tay. 

»-Ibid..  p.   202. 

^nUT.,  p.   2.'.7 


[35] 


36  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF   WISCONSIN 

all  who  would  not  if  able-bodied  and  of  full  age  be  liable  to 
militia  service.*"'  His  avowed  object  was  to  disfranchise  negroes 
who  were  excluded  from  the  militia  by  federal  law ;  lint  he 
urged  the  use  of  this  indirect  method  because  it  would  "preserve 
the  delicacy  of  language,  observable  in  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  which  nowhere  uses  the  word  slave.'"'"' 

Whether  the  object  in  view  was  "delicacy  of  language"  or 
the  welfare  of  the  negro,  the  vote  of  September  20  did  not  repre- 
sent the  real  sentiment  of  the  convention.  Several  amendments 
were  offered  which  discriminated  against  negroes  by  requiring  of 
them  higher  qualifications  than  of  white  men.**"  A  resolution  was 
passed  referring  the  subject  to  a  select  committee  of  thirteen.  Of 
the  members  appointed  by  Daniel  D.  Tompkins,  president  of  the 
convention,^"  nine  had  voted  in  the  negative  on  striking  out  the 
word  "white".'**  Their  report,  which  provided  that  men  of 
color  should  not  be  permitted  to  vote  unless  they  had  resided 
in  the  state  three  years,  and  owned  and  hacll  paid  taxes  on  a 
freehold  estate  worth  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  above  all 
incumbrances,  that  no  person  of  color  should  pay  any  taxes 
unless  he  owned  real  estate  of  this  value,  and  that  white  men 
could  vote  after  one  year's  residence  and  payment  of  taxes  or 
the  rendering  of  highway  and  militia  service,*^  came  before 
the  convention  on  the  6th  of  October.""  The  discrimination 
against  blacks  was  no  doubt  a  compromise  of  conflicting  opin- 
ions."^ There  was  an  influential  element  in  the  convention,  rep- 
resented by  Chancellor  Kent,  Rufus  King,"-  and  Mr.  Piatt,  who 
favored  a  property  qualification  but  were  opposed  to  color  dis- 
tinctions. Kent  was  willing  to  accept  the  proviso  because  it  left 
the  negro  some  hope.  The  prospect  of  becoming  a  voter  would 
encourage  industry  and  thrift:  "But  he  was  unwilling  to  see 
them    disfranchised    and    the    door    eternally    barred    against 


^*Jhiil.,  p.  202. 

""'-Ihiil.,  p.   186. 

^f' Ibid.,  p.   290.   Wendovpr.  and  P.irdspye.   p.    201,    Radcliffc  and  R.   Smith. 

^'/ftirf.,  p.   657. 

'"'IMd.,  pp.  202,   289-00. 

s9  ,Poore,  II.,   p.    134.'^. 

""1821   Con.  Report.,  p.  .iri7. 

»'  Ihid.,  p.  .346,  Tallmadse :  p.  .370.  Yoiins. 

^ima.,  p.  287. 


[36] 


OLBRICri— XEGEO    SUFFRAGE  S7 

them. "-^  Van  Buren  f^ivored.  the  report  of  the  committee  be- 
cause it  held  out  induconents  to  industry  and  because  it  ex- 
empted negroes  from  taxation  until  they  had  qualified  themselves 
to  vote."*  ]Mr.  Briggs,  who  wished  to  disfranchise  negroes  alto- 
gether, urged  that  property  was  no  more  a  just  test  for  black 
voters  than  for  white  voters;"^  he  ridiculed  the  idea  that  the 
right  of  suffrage  would  elevate  the  negro,  and  impatiently 
asked  "whether  it  would  elevate  a  monkey  or  a  baboon  to  allow 
them  to  vote."'"'  Mr.  Bacon  declared  that  it  was  wrong  to 
introduce  a  principle  of  caste  without  a  strong  political  neces- 
sity. The  negroes  were  so  few  that  no  danger  was  to  be  appre- 
hended from  permitting  them  to  vote.  If  they  were  to  be  exclud- 
ed from  the  electorate,  it  would  be  more  honorable  to  exclude 
them  directly,  for  the  property  qualification  would  disfranchise 
practically  every  one  of  them.  Mr.  Eastwood  said  he  was  op- 
posed to  "letting  in  black  vagabonds  to  vote",  but  felt  more 
liberal  than  the  select  committee,  and  therefore  moved  to  strike 
out  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  and  insert  one  hundred  dol- 
lars. His  motion  was  lost,  and  the  report  of  the  committee  was 
carried  by  a  vote  of  72  to  31. 

Immediately  Mr.  Piatt,  who  had  previously  voted  to  strike 
out  "white",  moved  to  expunge  the  proviso  relating  to  men  of 
color.  He  was  not  disposed  to  be  the  black  man 's  knight  errant : 
"But  the  obligations  of  justice  are  eternal  and  indispensable." 
He  admitted  that  few  negroes  could  vote  properly;  but,  instead 
of  "this  unjust  and  odious  discrimination  of  colour,"  he  would 
adopt  a  qualification  that  would  exclude  also  the  "ignorant  and 
depraved  white  men".  Negroes  were  just  beginning  to  make 
progress.  It  would  be  wrong  to  discourage  them,  especially  by 
this  dishonest  indirection.  "The  real  object  is,  to  exclude  the' 
oppressed  and  degraded  sons  of  Africa ;  and,  in  my  humble  judg- 
ment, it  would  better  comport  with  the  dignity  of  this  conven- 
tion to  speak  out,  and  to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  perpetual 


"^JMd.,  p    ;J64. 

"  Ibid.,  p.   376.     Also  Sharpe,   p.   ;^G4,   see  also  Shepard,    E.  M.,   Martin   Van 
liuren,  American  Slatesmcn  Series,  p.  6S. 
•5  1821   Con.  Report,  p.  ."fi4. 
^"'Itid..  p.    36.J. 


[37] 


38  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

degradation,   on  negroes  and  their  posterity  forever,   than    to 
establish  a  test  which  we  know  they  cannot  comply  with  and 
which  we  do  not  require  of  others.""'      There  were  71  votes 
against  Mr.  Piatt's  motion  and  only  33  for  it.     Four  of  the  33 
had  voted  against  striking  out  the  word  "white".     The  remain- 
ing 29  therefore  represent  the  real  strength  of  the  sentiment 
in  favor  of  putting  negroes  on  an  equality  with  white  men  with 
respect  to  the  elective  franchise.    Among  them  were  such  notable 
men  as  Piatt,  the  two  Van  Rensselaers,  Rufus  King  and  Chan- 
cellor Kent.     An  examination  of  the  vote  with  respect  to  the 
nativity  of  members  fails  to  show  that  natives  of  New  England 
voted  for  suffrage  in  larger  proportion  than  natives  of  New 
York.     Nor  does  there  seem  to  have  been  anything  noteworthy 
about  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  vote.    New  York  City 
had  the  most  considerable  negro  population,  and  it  was  said 
that,  before  the  meeting  of  the  convention,  restrictions  on  the 
negro's  right  to  vote  were  expected  or  desired  only  by  some  citi- 
zens of  New  York.°^    Yet,  of  the  eleven  members  from  New  York 
County,  five  voted  aye  on  striking  out  the  word  "white",  only 
four  voted  no,  and  two  M^ere  absent ;  and  three  New  York  mem- 
bers voted  against  the  discriminating  property  requirement. 

It  is  hardly  warrantable  to  call  a  convention,  which  greatly 
restricted  the  negro 's  right  to  vote  by  raising  the  property  quali- 
fication for  black  men  from  £20  to  $250  and  abolished  it  alto- 
gether for  white  men,  "a  dominant  emancipating  agent  in 
American  democracy.'"*"  Nevertheless  there  had  undoubtedly 
been,  since  the  veto  of  1785,  appreciable  progress  of  opinion 
favorable  to  the  African  race.  In  1785,  nearly  two  thirds  of 
both  houses  of  the  legislature  wished  to  deprive  negroes  of  the 
elective  franchise  altogether.  In  1821,  a  majority  were  opposed 
to  absolute  denial  of  the  suffrage  and  a  considerable  minority 
refused  to  sanction  any  restriction  that  did  not  apply  to  whites 
as  well  as  blacks.  Mr.  Piatt  pointed  to  the  change  of  opinion  on 
slavery  since  the   time,  sixty  years  before,  when  the   colonial 


^'  Jbia.,  pp.  374,  37.5. 

»» lUd.,  p.   195,  Van  Vechten. 

s»  Thorpe,  F.  N.,  Conntitutional  History  of  the  American  People,  II.,  p.  353. 


[38] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  39 

assembly  passed  a  law  with  the  preamble:  "Whereas  justice 
and  good  policy  require,  that  the  African  slave  trade  should 
be  liberally  encouraged. "  ^""^  "  The  astonishing  progress  of  the 
human  mind,  in  regard  to  religious  toleration;  the  various  plans 
of  enlightened  benevolence ;  and  especially  the  mighty  efforts 
of  the  wise  and  good  throughout  Christendom,  in  favour  of  the 
benighted  and  oppressed  children  of  Africa,"^  had  no  doubt 
produced  a  "visible  decay  of  prejudice."-  Even  if  it  had  been 
intended  to  disfranchise  all  negroes  indirectly,  it  meant  much 
that  men  had  come  to  feel  ashamed  to  adopt  an  express  exclu- 
sion of  Africans  from  the  right  to  vote.  It  is  also  significant 
that  Mr.  Jay,  the  negro's  most  ardent  champion,  opposed  dis- 
franchisement because  the  South  would  regard  it  with  a  feeling 
of  triumph.  In  1778,  the  opponents  of  equal  rights  in  Massa- 
chusetts had  advanced  the  idea  that  the  South  would  be  offend- 
ed. But  in  1821,  the  Missouri  struggle  had  roused  the  temper 
of  many  Northerners  and  there  was  henceforward  a  growing 
tendency  with  respect  to  negroes :  "To  befriend  them  in  the 
spirit  of  political  opposition,  as  well  as  from  the  gentler  dic- 
tates of  human  pity.  "^ 

Tennessee,  1834 

The  next  state  that  took  decisive  action  on  negro  suffrage  was 
Tennessee.  The  suffrage  clause  of  the  constitution  of  1796  was 
probably  not  intended  to  confer  the  elective  franchise  on  negroes, 
for  it  was  adopted  without  debate;  *  but,  as  there  was  no  express 
prohibition,  negroes  sooner  or  later  began  voting.^  Negro  voters 
must  have  become  numerous  enough  to  constitute  an  important 
element,  for  it  is  said :  ' '  The  opposing  candidates,  for  the  nonce 
oblivious  of  social  distinction  and  intent  only  on  catching  votes, 
hobnobbed  with   the  men  and  swung  corners  all  with   dusky 


»w>/ft»d.,   p.   37.^). 

^Jbia.,  375. 

^Wright,  Mannerx  in  America,  p.  73. 

»  ibia.,   p.   71. 

*  Sanford.  E.  T..  The  Constitutional  Convention  0/  Tennessee  of  1796,  reprinted 
from  the  Proceedings  of  the  Bar  Assoc,  of  Tenn.  for  1896,  p.  31. 

^n%d;  also  Studies  in  the  Constitutional  History  of  Tennessee,  Joshua  W. 
Caldwell,  p.   i)3. 


[39] 


40  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

damsels  at  election  balls.''"  John  Bell  and  Cave  Johnson  said 
that  they  were  elected  to  Congress  by  the  aid  of  colored  men's 
votes,  the  latter  boasting  that  he  owed  his  election  in  1828  to 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  free  negroes  who  worked  in  his 
mills.^  However  a  strong  opposition  to  negro  suffrage  was  grow- 
ing up.  The  exigencies  of  slavery  made  free  negroes  less  and 
less  welcome  while  the  liberal  suffrage  clause  seemed  to  draw 
more  and  more  of  them  into  the  state.  The  people  of  Tennessee 
became  anxious  to  check  their  immigration.-  During  the  twen- 
ties, the  anti-slavery  agitation  in  the  North  and  the  growing 
pro-slavery  sentiment  in  the  South,  produced  throughout  Tenn- 
essee, strong  manifestation  of  opposition  to  negro  citizenship. 
The  laws  against  free  negroes  became  stricter,  and  at  length,  on 
December  16,  1831,  the  legislature  forbade  them  to  enter  the 
state  and  provided  that  slaves  should  not  be  freed  except  on 
condition  that  they  be  removed  from  the  commonwealth  as  soon 
as  they  might  be  emancipated.^  The  constitution  of  1834  con- 
fined the  suffrage  to  white  men,  but  provided :  ' '  that  no  person 
shall  be  disqualified  from  voting  in  any  election  on  account  of 
color  who  is  now,  by  the  laws  of  this  State,  a  competent  wit- 
ness in  a  court  of  justices  against  a  white  man."^"  The  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  was  still  strong  and  the  convention  was  far 
from  unanimous :  the  suffrage  clause  was  carried  by  a  vote  of 
thirty-three  to  twenty-three.^^  It  was  also  provided  that  only 
those  qualified  under  the  proposed  article  could  vote  on  the 
amended  constitution."^- 


" Quoted  by  Weeks  in  Pol.  Soc.  Quarterly.,  IX.,  p.  67(3,  from  Buxton's,  Rem- 
iniscences 0/  the  Bench  and  Fayettevllle  Bar. 

'  Weeks,  p.  676,  who  refers  to  Summer's  Works,  X.,  p.  192 ;  The  Works  oj 
James  At)raham  GareflUJ.  edited  by  B.  A.'  Hinsdale,  I.,  p.  89 ;  also  Conf).  Olohe, 
1    S.   38   C,  p.   3305,   May    24,   38.54,    Mr.    Petit;    and,    2S.    38    C,    284,    Jan.    16, 

3  mr,. 

"Caldwell,  Studies,  pp.  93,   113. 

"  [(Joodspeed]   History  of  Tennessee,  pp.   755,  1756. 

^^  Ibid.,  p.  225;  Poore,  II.,  p.  1683.  This  provision  excluded  "All  negroes. 
Indians,  Mulattoes  and  all  persons  of  mixed  blood,  descondea  from  negro  and 
Indian  ancestors,  to  the  third  generations  inclusive,"  and  all  freedmen,  of 
whatever  blood,  for  twelve  months  after  emancipation.  Revision  of  1831,  p. 
377;  Revision  of  1836,   p.   712. 

"  Garfield,   J.   A.,   Works,  I.,   p.   89. 

"  Caldwell,  Studies,  p.   226. 


[40] 


olbrich— negro  suffrage  41 

North  Carolina,  1835 

Up  to  this  time  there  had  been  a  strong  anti-slavery  sentiment 
in  the  border  shwe  states.  In  the  western  parts  of  Virginia 
and  the  Carolinas,  in  Northern  Georgia  and  in  eastern  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee,  anti-slavery  agitation  up  to  1830  was  more 
vigorous  than  anywhere  in  the  northern  states.  It  was  especially 
strong  in  western  North  Carolina  which  was  a  region  of  small 
farms  and  democratic  ideals  and  which  contained  a  considerable 
Quaker  population.  From  1830,  however,  southern  anti-slavery 
societies  began  to  pass  out  of  existence  and  by  1840  Southern 
anti-slavery  sentiment  had  been  practically  silenced."  These 
facts  help  account  for  the  history  of  negro  suffrage  in  that 
staff.  The  constitution  of  1776  did  not  expressly-  forbid  negroes 
to  vote.^"*  During  the  Revolution  many  of  them  were  employed 
as  soldiers,  some  took  the  oath  of  allegiance,'^''  as  early  as  1778 
they  were  recognized  as  citizens,^"  and  it  seems  probable  that 
some  negroes  continued  to  exercise  the  electoral  privilege  from 
early  colonial  times  down,  and  that,  during  and  after  the  Revo- 
lution as  the  number  of  free  blacks  increased,  there  was  a  great 
increase  in  the  number  of  black  voters.^^  They  even  formed 
political  alliances,  in  some  northern  counties  became  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  elections,  made  friends  of  the  party  allies  and 
foes  of  their  party  opponents.^^  Whether  or  not  the  framers  of 
the  constitution  expected  negroes  to  vote,  there  is  no  doubt  ' '  that 
a  long  and  silent  acquiescence  in  the  enjoyment  of  certain  poli- 
tical rights  .  .  .  created  a  violent  presumption  in  their 
favor.  "^^'  As  they  l^ecame  inconveniently  numerous,  there  arose 


"Bassett.  .T.  S.,  Anti-SJarerii  Leaders  of  liorth  Carolina,  Johns  Hopkins'  His- 
iorical  /Studies,  XVI..  p.  267;  "UTceks,  S.  B.,  Anti-Slavern  Sentiment  in  the  South, 
Publications  of  the  Southern  Histonj  Ass'n..  April,  180S,  II.,  pp.  8T,  88.  89, 
93. 

"Poore,   II..   p.   l-ni. 

"  JV.  C.  Con.  Report.,  p.  ;!o4. 

'"Weeks.  S.  B.,  Pol.  Soc.   Quarterly.,  IX..  p.  67.5. 

'^  Bassett.  J.  S.,  Slaveri/  in  the  State  of  N.  Carolina,  Johns  Hopkins'  Historical 
(Studies,  XVIT.,  p.  a.i4. 

^^IMd;  also  Dodge,  J)..  The  Free  Negroes  of  North  Carolina,  Atlantic  Month- 
ly., Jan    1886,   vol.   LVII.,  p.   25. 

«2V.   C.   Con.  Report.,  p.  GS,  Mr.  Bryan. 


[41] 


42  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

a  demand  that  they  be  disfranchised.  This  demand  became 
stronger  with  the  growth  of  pro-slavery  sentiment  in  opposition 
to  anti-slavery  agitation  in  the  North.-''  In  1826,  Bartlett 
Yancey  wrote,  that  in  all  the  counties  and  nearly  all  the  towns 
of  the  state  there  was  hostility  to  negro  suffrage  due  to  the 
work  of  colonization  and  abolition  societies.'^  He  probably  re- 
ferred to  the  anti-slavery  societies  in  North  Carolina  which  were 
then  50  in  number  and  had  3,000  members.--  A  law  was  passed 
forbidding  negroes  or  mulattoes  to  hold  office.-^  The  convention 
of  1835,  by  the  law  which  provided  for  calling  it,  was  empowered 
to  consider  the  disfranchisement  of  free  negroes.-*  By  this  time 
the  colored  people,  because  of  indisposition  or  fear  of  whites, 
had  ceased  voting  in  some  communities,-^  while  in  some  places 
they  had  probably  never  voted.  In  the  convention  of  1835  it 
was  said  that  "in  several  of  the  Eastern  counties  they  are  not 
permitted  to  vote,  and  they  have  acquiesced  in  this  determina- 
tion with  cheerfulness  and  contentment."--'  Representatives 
from  Iredell  and  Perquimons  asserted  that  free  blacks  had  never 
voted  in  either  of  those  counties.-"  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
said  that  there  were  300  colored  voters  in  Halifax,  150  in  Hert- 
ford, 50  in  Chowan,  and  75  in  Pasquotank;-^  and  by  another 
member  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  ascertain  the  number  of 
white  voters,  because  half  the  clerks  in  their  returns  to  the 
comptroller's  office,  failed  to  distinguish  between  black  and  white 
polls.-® 

The  convention  liegan  the  discussion  of  negro  suffrage  on  the 
12th  of  June,  1835.  The  friends  of  the  African  seem  to  have 
had  no  hope  of  securing  for  him  equal  voting  privil,eges  with 
white  men.  They  put  forth  all  their  efforts  to  secure  a  property 
qualification  that  would  permit  some  negroes  to  retain  the  val- 


="  Bassett,  .1.   S.,  op.   cit. 

-'  Weeks ;   Pol.   ISci.   Quar.,   IX.,   p.   676. 

"  Weeks,  Southern  Historical  Assoc.  Pub.,   II.,  p.   89. 

=^  Bassett,   op.   cit.;   N.   C.   Con.   Report.,  p.   71. 

"Bassett,  op.  cit.;  N.  C.  Con.  Report.,  p.  66. 

^  Bassett,  op.  cit. 

""N.  C.    Con.  Report.  18.35.    p.   69,   Mr.  Bryan. 

-'  Ibid.,  p.  353,  King,   p.   355,   Wilson. 

-^Ibid.,  pp.   70,   80. 

^  Ibid.,  p.   30. 


[42] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  43 

ued  right  and  offered  several  propositions  looking  to  that  end.^" 
The  first  of  these,  introduced  by  ]Mr.  Daniel,  was  avowedly 
modelled  after  the  New  York  provision  and,  like  it,  provided 
that  no  free  person  of  color  should  have  the  right  to  vote  unless 
he  possessed  a  freehold  worth  $250.^^  The  adoption  of  such  a 
clause  would  "leave  the  door  open  to  all  colored  men  of  good 
character  and  industrious  habits,"  who  would  find  no  difficulty 
in  obtaining  the  necessary  qualification."-  Judge  Gaston  pro- 
tested that  a  negro  who  was  an  honest  freeholder  and  perhaps 
a  Christian,  "should  not  be  politically  excommunicated,  and 
have  an  additional  mark  of  degradation  fixed  upon  him  on 
account  of  his  color. '  '"^  He  and  several  other  members  appealed 
to  the  fear  of  slave  insurrections.^*  The  denial  of  the  suffrage 
would  be  regarded  by  free  negroes  as  indicative  of  an  intention 
to  degrade  and  reduce  them  to  a  condition  akin  to  slavery.'^ 
"If  we  close  the  door  entirely  against  this  unfortunate 
clcsss  of  our  population,"  said  Mr.  Moorhead,  "we  may  light 
up  the  torch  of  commotion  among  our  slaves.  "^'^  The  result 
might  be  scenes  of  desolation  and  distress.  Kindly  treatment  of 
the  respectable  negroes  would  attach  them  to  the  white  popula- 
tion and  as  in  the  West  Indies  and  other  places,  would  make 
them  serviceable  in  disclosing  symptoms  of  discontent  among  the 
slaves."" 

Only  one  of  the  men  who  advanced  this  argument 
from  expediency  was  bold  enough  to  declare  that  it  was  suffi- 
cient for  him  that  'they  are  human  beings,  and  free  agents,  and 
have  a  free  will."^^  Mr.  Kelly  contended  "for  the  broad 
principle  that  all  men  are  entitled  to  equal  rights,""''  and  Mr. 
Toomer  asserted  that  to  abrogate  the  black  man's  right  to  vote 


■'»/6Jri,  p.  60,  Daniel,  p.  73,  Shobor.  p  SO.  Mooiiicad,  p.  352.  Gaston,  p.  353. 
Fishor,   Holmes,   p.  .">57,  Dockery- 

"/OJrf.,  pp.  60,  61. 

■'^  Jbid. 

^Ibid.,  p.  79. 

'^Ihid.,  pp.  79,  72,  354.  Holmes,  p.  73,  Sliober,  p.  74,  Giles,  p.  SO,  Moor- 
head. 

''"  Ihid.,  p.  352,  Gaston. 

3«  Ibid.,  p.   SO. 

»'  Ibid..,  Holmes   pp.    72,   353. 

■"'Ibid.,  p.   72,   Shober. 

s«  Ibid.,  p.   356.  - 

[43] 


44  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

"would  be  tyranny;  and  the  plea  of  policy  could  not  alter  the 
ease,  as  that  had,  in  all  ages,  been  the  cry  of  tyrants,  to  justify 
their  oppressions.  "■'°  Mr.  Daniel  reminded  the  convention  that 
negroes  had  fought  in  the  war  for  independence.^^  Nor  was  the 
injustice  of  taxation  without  representation  forgotten.*-  "It 
is  contrary  to  all  the  principles  of  free  government,"  said  Mr. 
Kelly,  "to  tax  a  man  and  refuse  him  a  right  to  vote  for  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Legislature  who  lays  the  tax."*^  Most  of  the  friends 
of  the  negroes  however,  seemed  willing  to  admit  that  a  black 
man  was  not  as  good  as  a  white  man.^^  jMr.  Daniel  declared  that 
his  observation  during  thirty  years  past  showed  that 
the  colored  man  of  property  and  standing  uniformly  voted  for 
representatives  of  talents  and  good  character,  but  he  admitted 
there  were  many  worthless  l^lacks  to  whom  the  suffrage  ought 
to  be  denied.*^'  ]\Ir.  Holmes  said':  "Such  of  them  as  possess  prop- 
erty, and  are  of  good  standing,  ought  to  be  distinguished  from 
those  of  the  class  who  are  vicious  and  disorderly.  j\Iany  of  them 
are  in  a  degraded  and  corrupt  state.'*"  From  an  opposite  view 
point,  the  negroes'  enemies  gave  about  the  same  testimony.  They 
admitted  that  there  were  a  few  exemplary  and  meritorious 
negroes,  but  thought  it  bad  policy  to  attempt  a  line  of  distinction 
between  the  worthy  and  the  unworthy.*"  Most  of  them  were 
incapable  of  voting  judiciously:  "With  a  little  drink  and  some 
trifle,  they  could  be  bought  like  a  lot  of  poultry."*^  They  did 
not  vote  for  the  best  men:  "Any  candidate  who  would  asso- 
ciate with  them,  might  obtain  their  vote,  however  low  his  qualifi- 
cations. "*"  Their  want  of  education,  the  tame  spirit  of  submis- 
sion with  which  they  are  moulded  to  the  will  of  an  influential 
neighbor  renders  it  entirely  impolitic  that  they  should  enjoj^  the 


^ojbia.,  p.   80. 
*-JM(l.,  p.   61. 
« Ibid.,  p.   72,   Shober. 
^^Jbid.,  p.   :^,56. 

^*  Bassett,    Suffrage   in    N.    Uarntina,    Report    of    the    Am.    Hist.    Assoc,    180.T 
p.   278. 

«iV.  C.  Con.  Report.,  IS.^S.,  pp.  61-6:(. 
^^  Ibid.,  p.   72. 

*"  Ibid.,  p.   7.5,   Crodop  and  McQueen. 
«/7>jV7.,  pp.   79,  80,    Cooper,  Wilson. 
i^  Ibid.,  p.  74,  Crodop. 


[44] 


OLIJRICH— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  45 

privilege."'"  Public  opinion  was  on  the  side  of  the  opponents  of 
negro  suffrage.  -It  had  come  to  pass  that  the  support  of  negroes 
was  an  element  of  weakness  to  a  politician.  Opposing  candi- 
dates twitted  each  other  about  this  part  of  their  constituency  and 
declared  themselves  willing  to  throw  out  every  free  negro  ballot 
if  their  opponents  would  follow  their  example.  Twenty  years 
ago  (1906)  there  was  still  a  tradition  among  the  negroes  of 
Granville  county  that  they  had  been  disfranchised  because  of 
their  persistent  supjiort  of  an  able  and  unscrupulous  demagogue 
named  Potter.''^ 

However  well  or  ill  colored  men  may  have  been  qualified  to 
vote,  their  possession  of  the  elective  franchise,  as  the  enemies  of 
negro  suffrage  were  not  slow  to  point  out,  was  decidedly  incon- 
gruous with  their  general  position  in  the  l)ody  politic.'-  "The 
negro,"  said  ]\Ir.  McQueen,  "came  here  debased;  he  is  yet  de- 
based, and  there  is  no  sort  of  polish  which  education  or  circum- 
stances can  give  him.  which  ever  v\ill  reconcile  the  whites  to  an 
extension  of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  free  negro.""'"  Even  a 
free  mulatto,  he  continued,  could  have  no  permanent  interest  in 
or  attachment  to  the  community:  "He  finds  the  door  of  of- 
fice closed  against  him,  by  the  bars  and  bolts  of  pul)lic  senti- 
ment; he  finds  the  circle  of  respectable  society  closed  against 
him,  let  him  conduct  himself  with  as  much  propriety  as  he  may; 
he  finds  himself  suspended  between  two  classes  of  society — the 
white  and  the  black — condemned  by  the  one  and  despised  by  the 
other;  and  when  his  favorite  candidate  in  an  election  prevails, 
it  communicates  no  gratification  to  his  breast,  for  the  candidate 
will  be  a  white  man,  and  he  knows  full  well  that  the  white  man 
eyes  him  with  contempt."'^*  Mr.  Wilson  said:  "We  already  ex- 
clude a  colored  person  from  giving  testimony  against  a  white 
person.  A  white  man  may  go  to  the  house  of  a  free  black,  mal- 
treat and  abuse  him.  and  commit  any  outrage  upon  his  family— 


^"Ibicl.,  p.   7!).   Wilson. 

31  Atlantic  Monthly,    1S86..    LVII..    p.   25. 

^-  "The  strange  anomaly  of  a  class  incompetent  to  testify  in  court,  and  other- 
wise almost  as  destitute  of  rights  as  brutes,  exercising  a  function  everywhere 
deemed  the  first  of  privilosrs,  and  which  the  vast  mass  of  freemen  in  the  most 
^'nllghtened   countries   of   the   world  are  yet  striving   to   attain."   Ihtd. 

="JV.  C.  Con.  Report,  IS'Mi,  p.  77. 

" -V.  C.  Con.  Report.,  18.^5,  p.  78. 

[45] 


46  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

for  all  wliitih  the  law  cannot  reach  him,  unless  some  vviiite  person 
saw  the  act  committed. '  '^'^'  Mr.  Bryan  asked :  ' '  What  becomes 
of  the  inalienable  rights  of  these  boasted  freemen  and  citizens, 
when  the  legislature  of  our  own  state  has  passed  an  act,  author- 
izing the  courts,  upon  conviction  of  any  of  them,  for  a  paltry 
misdemeanor,  and  an  inability  on  their  part  to  pay  the  costs  thus 
incurred,  that  they  be  hired  out  for  the  same?  If  the  same 
policy  had  been  adopted  with  regard  to  free  white  citizens,  is 
there  a  doubt  in  this  convention,  but  that  with  one  voice,  from 
the  mountains  to  the  sea-shore,  the  people,  the  judiciary,  and  all 
the  powers  of  the  government,  would  have  declared  that  the  act 
was  void,  and  that  it  was  an  unconstitutional  deprivation  of  the 
liberties  and  privileges  of  a  freeman !  It  cannot  be  disguised, 
that  there  is  a  vast  and  mighty  difference  between  the  Constitu- 
tional rights  and  privileges  of  a  free  white  man  and  a  free 
negro,  or  else  the  legislative  construction  and  acts  have  done 
gross  and  violent  injustice  to  this  unfortunate  class  of  inhabit- 
ants."^® He  denied  that  free  negroes  Avere  citizens.  The  legislat- 
ure had  not  interpreted  the  clause  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
concerning  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  to  include 
black  men.  North  Carolina  had  put  severe  restrictions  on  their 
immigration  into  the  state,  and  most  states  forbade  them  to  vote. 
If  negroes  were  citizens,  all  commonwealths  that  denied  them  the 
elective  franchise  were  violating  the  Constitution  of  the  Union.^'" 
They  could  not  be  called  freemen  within  the  meaning  of  the 
constitution  of  North  Carolina.^^  "This  is  a  nation  of  white 
people — its  offices,  dignities  and  privileges,  are  alone  open  to, 
and  to  be  enjoyed  by,  white  people."^''  To  these  declarations. 
Judge  Gaston  replied  by  a  legal  argument.  Before  the  Revolu- 
tion, the  few  freemen  of  color  were  chiefly  mulattoes.  the  children 
of  white  women,  and  necessarily  citizens,  as  in  the  law  they  fol- 
lowed the  condition  of  their  mothers.  When  the  emancipation 
of  slaves  began,  the  act  which  directed  the  manner  in  which  they 
might  be  manumitted,  expressly  declared  them  entitled  to  all  the 


^^Ibid.,  p.  so. 
^"Ibia.,  p.  66. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  64. 
lis  Ibia.,  p.  65.' 
^■'Ibta.,  p.   67. 


[46] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  47 

rights  and  privileges  of  colored  freemen.'^''  It  was  true  that  they 
could  not  give  evidence  against  white  men ;  but  on  precisely  anal- 
agous  grounds,  the  Civil  Law  forbade  a  father  to  give  evidence 
for  his  son,  or  a  son  for  his  father.'^^  Three  years  later.  Judge 
Gaston  had  occasion,  in  delivering  an  opinion  of  the  supreme 
court  of  the  state,  to  elaborate  his  argument.*^-  "Whatever  dis- 
tinctions may  have  existed  in  the  Roman  law  between  citizens 
and  free  inhabitants,  they  are  unknown  to  our  institutions," 
"Slaves  manumitted  here  become  freemen — and  therefore  if 
born  within  North  Carolina  are  citizens  of  North  Carolina — and 
all  free  persons  born  within  the  state  are  bom  citizens  of  the 
State."  Negroes  had  been  permitted  to  vote  under  the  old 
constitution:  "And  it  is  a  matter  of  universal  notoriety  that 
under  it,  free  persons,  without  regard  to  colour,  claimed  and 
exercised  the  franchise  until  it  was  taken  from  freemen  of  colour 
a  few  years  since  by  our  amended  constitution."  Yet  he  was 
compelled  to  recognize  the  existing  black  laws,  and  was  forced  to 
argue,  in  effect,  that  a  man  might  be  a  citizen  under  disabilities 
that  in  most  respects  would  make  his  citizenship  meaningless. 

The  race  feeling  against  negroes  came  out  still  more  strongly 
in  other  arguments  that  were  advanced  by  the  advocates  of  dis- 
franchisement. The  argument,  which  had  been  used  in  Mass- 
achusetts in  1778,  in  New  York  in  1821,  and  was  yet  to  be  heard 
in  the  discussions  of  the  next  thirty  years,  that  negroes  would 
come  into  the  state  was  not  overlooked.  "Our  good  old  State," 
said  Mr.  Bryan,  "will  become  the  asylum  of  free  negroes;  they 
will  come  in  crowds  from  the  North,  South  and  West  and  we 
shall  be  overrun  by  a  miserable  and  worthless  population.  If  we 
hold  out  inducements  to  any  portion  of  the  human  race,  to  come 
and  settle  amongst  us,  let  it  be  to  those  of  sober,  honest  and  in- 
dustrious habits,  and  such  as  feel  an  interest  in  and  duly  appreci- 
ate the  institutions  of  the  country."*'^  Another  cry,  afterward 
to  be  uttered  with  unusual  vigor  in  Pennsylvania,  was:  "No 
amalgamation  of  colors."*'*  Mr.  Wilson  said  "that  however  much 


'^Ibid.,  pp.  :i51,   352. 

'^IDia.,  p.   357. 

0^  state  V.  Manuel,  Dec.  18.38.  4  Devereux  d  Battle,  p.  20. 

"N.  C.  Con.  Report,  18::55,  p.  68. 

••/Oirf.    p.    67. 

[47] 


48  BULLETIN    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

colored  persons  might  be  elevated,  their  color  alone  would  prove 
a  harrier  to  keep  them  in  a  degraded  state.    And  the  moment  a 
free  mulatto  obtains  a  little  property,  and  is  a  little  favored  by 
being  admitted  to  vote,  he  will  not  be  satisfied  with  a  black  wife. 
He  will  soon  connect  himself  with  a  white  woman.  ""^     It  was 
argued  that  negro  suffrage  might  lead  to  negro  office-holding, 
and  it  was  apparentlj^  assumed  that  the  election  of  black  justices 
and  sheriffs  would  of  course  be  intolerable.'"^     To  the  argument 
that  free  negroes  had  served  faithfully  in  the  Revolution,  Mr. 
Bryan  replied  that  slaves  as  well  fought  bravely  in  the  ranks, 
and  that  Congress  had  excluded  free  blacks  from  the  militia.''^ 
Along  with  the  demonstration  that  negroes  were  debased  and 
degraded  and  could  be  abused  by  white  men  with  impunity  was 
set  forth  the  reasoning  that  the  negroes  did  not  need  the  elective 
franchise  as  "they  had  no  distinct  interests  to  protect,  and  their 
general  interests  would  be  protected  by  the  general  representa- 
tion of  the  State, ' '  "*  and  that  the  protection  given  by  the'  state 
amply  repaid  the  light  taxes  laid  upon  them.^^     Referring  to 
the  example  of  New  York,  Nathaniel  IMacon,  who  was  president 
of  the  convention,  argued  that  the  situation  in  North  Carolina 
was  much  different  because  the  number  of  free  negroes  was  very 
much  greater.     Perhaps  the  most  solid  logic  employed  by  any- 
one on  the  side  against  negro  suffrage  was  contained  in  Mr.  Mc- 
Queen's interrogation:     "Is  there  any  gentleman  on  this  floor, 
who  would  be  willing  to  see  the  right  of  suffrage  extended  to 
free  persons  of  colour,  if  they  were  likely  to  constitute  a  majority 
of  voters  in  the  State  ? '  ''"^     Probably  not  the  most  zealous  fighter 
for  negro  rights,  any  where  in  the  country,  would  at  that  time 
answered  this  question  in  the  affirmative.     Indeed,  Mr.  Jay,  the 
New  York  champion  of  the  negro,  based  one  of  his  strongest  ap- 
peals on  the  ground  that  colored  voters  were  so  few  that  they 
would  be  of  no  real  importance  in  elections."^     McQueen  con- 


'^Ibid.  p.  71. 

^Ibid.,  p.  68,  Bryan:  p.  SO.  Wilson. 

<"  Ibid.,  p.   62. 

^Ibid.,  p.   356.  McQueen. 

'*lbid.,  p.  68,  Bryan. 

"ifttVf.,  p.   77. 

^i^Ante,  p.  32. 


[48] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  49 

tinned:  "If  we  would  not  be  willing  to  invest  them  with  the 
right  of  suffrage,  in  case  they  were  in  a  majority,  it  is  not  a 
sound  principle  to  extend  it  to  them  whilst  they  are  in  a  minor- 
ity. '  '^-  The  rising  tide  of  pro-slavery  feeling  showed  itself  in 
several  expressions.  One  member  declared  that  he  would  as 
soon  admit  his  own  slave  to  equality  as  any  free  negro. ^^  The 
condition  of  free  negroes  was  justified  as  superior  to  the  situa- 
tion of  ancient  helots  or  European  serfs.'^*  The  subjection  of 
black  men  was  defended  as  necessary  to  cultivate  marsh  lands 
and  carry  out  internal  improvements.'"'  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Per- 
quimans, a  county  on  the  ocean,  said,  he  had  heard  almost 
everybody  saying  that  slavery  was  a  great  evil.  Now  he  be- 
lieved that  it  was  no  such  thing — he  thought  it  great  blessing  in 
the  South.  Our  system  of  Agriculture  could  not  be  carried  on 
in  the  Southern  States  without  it — we  might  as  well  attempt  to 
build  a  railroad  to  tlie  moon,  as  to  cultivate  our  swamp  lands 
without  slaves.'^'' 

The  votes  show,  however,  that  there  was  a  considerable  minor- 
ity friendly  to  the  negro.  Mr.  Daniel's  proposition  of  June 
12th,  for  a  property  qualification  was  amended  on  the  same  day 
by  substituting  a  resolution  proposed  by  ]\Ir.  Wilson:  "That  free 
negroes  and  mulattoes  within  four  degrees,  shall  not  in  future 
be  allowed  to  vote  for  members  of  the  Senate  or  House  of  Com- 
mons. "■'  This  amendment  w^as  adopted  by  a  vote  of  61  to  58^^ 
This  resolution  constituted  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the 
whole,  and  the  motion  next  day  to  strike  out  was  lost,  the  vote 
standing  62  to  65.  Then  the  report  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of 
66  to  61.'"  As  one  would  expect,  the  heaviest  vote  in  favor  of 
the  negro  was  given  by  representatives  from  the  anti-slavery  re- 
gion of  the  West.  Of  the  65  votes  against  striking  out.  47  were 
cast  by  the  east  and  18  by  the  west.  Of  the  62  in  favor  of 
striking  out  the  disfranchising  provision,  40  were  cast  by  the 


'-N.  C.   Con.  Report,  1835,  p.  77. 


""lUd.,  p.  356,    Carson. 

'*It>ia..  p.  62,   Bryan. 

^Ibid.,  p.  70,   Macon. 

^ma.,  p.  SO. 

''^  IMd.,  p.  71. 

""Ibid.,  p.  72. 

■"Ihid.,  p.  81. 


[49] 


50  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

west  and  only  22  by  the  east.^"  On  the  6th  of  July,  Judge  Gas- 
ton brought  up  the  subject  again,  and  proposed  a  clause  which 
would  grant  the  voting  privilege  to  colored  men  who  "owned  and 
possessed  property,  real  or  personal  or  both,  of  the  clear  value  of 
five  hundred  dollars  over  and  above  all  incumbrances,  charges 
and  debts."  Although  it  was  probably  true  that,  as  a  member 
had  said,  even  the  requirement  of  $250  would  either  produce 
frauds  or  amount  to  a  nearly  total  disfranchisement,  the  major- 
ity were  unwilling  to  make  the  slightest  concession.  Judge  Gas- 
ton's proposition  was  defeated,  6-i  to  55,®^  the  substance  of  Mr. 
Wilson's  resolution  became  a  part  of  the  state  constitution^-  and 
there  was  no  more  negro  suffrage  in  North  Carolina  until  the 
days  of  Reconstruction.  This  provision  went  one  generation 
beyond  that  adopted  by  Tennessee,  excluding  all  those  descended 
from  negro  ancestors  to  the  fourth  generation  inclusive. 

One  would  naturally  suppose  that  the  precedent  of  Tennessee 
would  have  been  cited  in  the  convention  in  North  Carolina,^^  but 
no  reference  to  this  example  is  recorded  in  the  debates.  At  least 
Mr.  McQueen,  who  did  more  of  the  speaking  against  negro  suf- 
frage than  anyone  else,  was  clearly  unaware  that  either  ]\[ary- 
land  or  Tennessee  had  deprived  the  African  of  tlic  elective  fran- 
chise.^* In  other  states  there  was  similar  ignorance  of  what 
action  had  been  taken  elsewhere  or  in  former  times.  When  the 
New  York  convention  of  1821  was  in  session,  the  veto  of  1785 
was  apparently  forgotten,  for  it  was  never  mentioned.  In  the 
Pennsylvania  convention  of  1837-1838,  which  will  be  next  dis- 
cussed, several  members  referred  to  the  debates  of  the  New 
York  convention  and  to  the  action  of  other  states  but  no  one 
spoke  of  the  disfranchisement  of  colored  men  in  North  Carolina 
and  toward  the  end  of  the  session,  one  member  asserted  that 
negroes  could  still  vote  in  that  state. ^^ 


"•Bassett,  Am.  Hist,  .'\ssoc.  Report.,  1895,  p.  280;  or  Johns  Hopkins'  Histor- 
ical Studies,  vol.  XVII.,  358. 

»i3V.  C.   Con.  Report.,  1835,  p.  357. 

"Poore,   II.,  1411. 

"^ "  This  restriction  no  doubt  liad  a  reflex  influence  on  North  Carolina." 
Weeks,    Pol.   Sic.    Qunr.,    TX.,    674. 

84  TV.  V.  Con.  Reports,  1835,  p.  70. 

'^^Penn.  Con.   Reports,  1837-38,  X.,  355,  Biddle. 


[50] 


'  olbrich— negro  suffrage  51 

Pennsylvania,  1837--38 

In  Pennsylvania,  in  1837,  there  were  many  negro  voters.  It 
was  roughly  estimated  by  a  member  of  the  convention  that  some 
hundreds  of  colored  men  voted  in  York  county,  and  some  thirty 
or  forty  in  Bucks.^^  Another  member  complained  that  the  elec- 
tion in  Bucks  county  that  year  had  been  influenced  by  the  negroes 
and  that  the  year  before  they  had  come  within  twelve  votes  of 
electing  their  candidate  for  Congress.*^"  Allegheny,  Dauphin, 
Cumberland,  Juniata,  Westmoreland  and  "many  other  counties" 
were  also  mentioned  as  places  where  negroes  voted.^^  On  the 
other  hand,  there  were  several  thousand  free  negroes  of  full  age 
in  Philadelphia,-^  and  they  were  all  kept  away  from  the  polls  by 
construing  the  constitution  that  the  right  to  vote  could  not  be 
exercised  without  a  previous  assessment.*"^  They  could  not  ap- 
pear at  the  voting  places  with  safety  in  the  county  of  Philadel- 
phia, and  to  bring  them  there  "would  endanger  the  peace  and 
happiness  of  the  whole  black  population."  In  many  places 
throughout  the  state,  "public  sentiment  rising  above  all  law 
and  the  constitution,  prevented  them  from  coming  to  the 
polls. '  '^1  Whether  they  were  legally  entitled  to  the  elective  fran- 
chise under  the  constitution  of  1790  was  an  unsettled  question,^- 
about  which,  during  the  agitation  which  accompanied  the  session 
of  the  convention,  "judges,  lawyers,  and  statesmen,  as  well  as 
citizens  at  large,"  differed  "in  diametrical  opposition. "^^  Elec- 
tion officers  were  doubtful  as  to  whom  they  should  permit  to 
vote.^*  Before  the  meeting  of  the  convention,  little  was  thought 
about  the  subject.  Two  members,  both  from  Philadelphia,  had 
not  known  that  any  negroes  had  ever  voted  in  any  county  in  the- 
state. ^''     In  North   Carolina,   the  law  which  provided   for  the^ 


"'Ibid.,    III.,    90.    Brown. 

'■'Ibid.,  v.,   414,   Sterigere. 

^Ibid.,  IX.,   3S0,   M'Cahen. 

*'Jlbid.,  I.,  .^41,  M'Dowell. 

"^Ibid.,  I.,  pp.  82,  83,   Martin. 

">' Ibid.,  I.,  p.  478.  Martin. 

"■Ibid.,  III.,  p.  86,  Woodward. 

o^Jbid.,  X.,   97,  Hopkinson. 

**Ibid.,   IX.,    383. 

»'  Ibid.,  I..   477.    Martin  :   TIT..  00.   Brown. 


[51] 


52  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

meeting  of  the  convention  of  1835  empowered  it  to  disfranchise 
colored  voters,  but  in  Pennsylvania  little  had  been  previously 
thought  or  spoken  of  negro  suffrage.'"^  It  was  not  one  of  the 
questions  that  led  to  the  calling  of  the  convention,  it  had  prob- 
ably not  been  discussed  in  any  public  meetings  or  j^roceedings 
that  preceded  the  meeting  of  that  body,  and  it  had  been  agitated 
in  hardly  more  than  a  single  county  at  the  time  the  delegates 
were  elected.®' 

The  first  suffrage  article  reported  to  the  convention  on  May 
17,  1837,  contained  no  color  distinction.  The  convention  met 
May  2.-'^  But  on  the  19th  of  June,  Mr.  Sterigere  proposed  a 
substitute  containing  the  word  "white"-'®  which  was  discussed 
on  that  day  and  on  the  21st  and  23rd.^"°  The  debate  on  this 
question  and  on  printing  a  memorial  protesting  against  dis- 
franchisement, which  was  sent  to  the  convention  by  eighty  ne- 
groes of  Pittsburg,  aroused'  public  interest,  newspapers  discussed 
the  question  and  popular  excitement  spread  over  the  whole 
state.^  The  convention  adjourned  from  July  14  until  October 
17.-  During  this  period  much  opposition  to  negro  suffrage  was 
manifested.  Mr.  Sterigere  said:  "After  adjournment  in  July, 
I  passed  through  near  half  the  counties  in  the  State,  and  found 
opposition  to  negro  suffrage  was  almost  unanimous.  Persons  o± 
all  parties  expressed  the  strongest  objection  to  any  political 
association  with  this  class  of  our  population."^  Mr.  McCahen 
expressed  the  opinion  that  the  people  would  not  ratify  the  con- 
stitution unless  colored  men  were  expressly  disfranchised.*  Yet 
there  was  a  minority  on  the  side  of  the  negroes.  In  some  coun- 
ties attempts  were  made  to  bring  them  to  the  polls,  and  the 
clash  of  opposing  sentiments  and  opinions  threatened  serious 
difficulties."'    When  the  convention  met  again,  scores  of  petitions 


^"IbM.,  X.,  96,   Hopkinson. 

«'ibld.,  IX.,  p.  334,  Earle. 

"s/bw.,   I.,   p.    233. 

"« Ihiit.,   I.,  p.  472. 

""  Ihid..  I.,  pp.  470-481,   540,  .541,  561 ;   III.,  pp.  82-91. 

'  Tbid,  v.,  414,  416,  IX.,  357, 

'Ibid.,  III.,    78U. 

-'Jbid.,  IX..  357. 

<  Ibid.,   IX.,   p.    380. 

5  Ibid  ,  X..   p.   'Mi 


[52] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  53 

and  memorials,  praying  for  disfranchisement  or  for  impartial 
suffrage,  were  sent  in  from  all  parts  of  the  state.''  From  Bucks 
county  were  sent  twenty-six  memorials  and  petitions  asking  that 
negroes  be  disfranchised  and  seven  praying  that  they  be  per- 
mitted to  vote ;  from  Montgomery  county,  eighteen  and  two ; 
and  from  Philadelphia  county,  fourteen  and  six,  one  of  the 
latter  having  been  sent  ostensibly  by  colored  people.  One  peti- 
tion from  Schuylkill,  two  from  Lycoming,  five  from  Westmore- 
land, one  from  Lancaster  and  two  from  York  were  opposed  to 
negro  suffrage :  in  favor  of  it  were,  one  from  Luzerne,  coming 
from  colored  people,  four  from  Lancaster,  two  from  IMifflin,  one 
each  from  Dauphin,  Susquehanna,  Deleware,  and  Washington, 
and  fifteen  from  Chester.  Most  of  the  petitions,  therefore,  came 
from  the  eastern  part  of  the  state.  Bucks,  Montgomery,  Phila- 
delphia and  Westmoreland,  as  far  as  the  petitions  are  an  indica- 
tion, were  the  chief  centers  of  opposition  to  negro  suffrage,  while 
all  fifteen  of  the  petitions  from  Chester  were  in  favor  of  it. 
^Meanwhile  the  question  had  been  taken  to  the  courts.  Appar- 
ently, the  lower  tribunals  had  considered  a  few  cases  before  the 
convention  met,  and  when  agitation  was  going  on  during  the 
latter  part  of  1837,  the  friends  of  the  negroes  brought  a  number 
of  suits  to  test  the  colored  man's  right  to  vote.  In  most  of  these 
cases  it  was  decided  that  no  such  right  existed.'^  In  June,  an 
appeal  was  taken  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  and  the 
case  was  argued  before  it  in  July;^  but  the  decision,  which  was 
adverse  to  the  negroes,  was  not  handed  down  until  after  the 
convention  had  adjourned.^ 

Many  of  the  arguments  advanced  in  the  Pennsylvania  con- 
vention debates  had  been  used  before  in  the  New  York  conven- 
tion of  1821  and  during  the  JMassachusetts  discussions  of  1778. 


« Ibid.,  v..  pp.  414.  419,  426.  44.S  ;  VI.,  pp.  46.  102,  298,  .370,  .371 ;  VII.,  pp.  S, 
117,  272.  295,  .357,  384;  VIIT.,  pp.  91,  92,  113,  117.  161.  162.  103,  267:  IX.^ 
pp.  41.  83.  114,  15.^,  219,  224,  225.  293,  294,   3.39:  X..   pp.  29.  193;  XI..  p.   3. 

'Tbia.,  III.,  p.  86;  V.  p.  423;  IX.,  p.  353. 

» IMd.,   III.,    p.    87. 

^  Hohhs  et  al.,  r.  Fogrj :  6  WnH.'i.  p.  553,  or  55  Penu.  p.  214.  I  cannot 
fix  the  date  when  the  decision  was  made  public,  exactly  ;  but  language  used  in 
the  conventicn  on  .Tan.  18.  1838,  (TX..  375t  and  later.  (X;  47,  97)  shows  that 
the  case  was  not  yet  decided ;  and  expressions  used  by  Chief-Gibson  shows  that 
he  was  writing  after  the  adoption  by  the  convention  of  the  new  suffrage  clause. 
6  Watts,  p.  5oO. 

[53] 


54  BULLETIN    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

Some  were  new,  and  some  of  the  old  arguments  were  viewed 
from  new  standpoints  and  developed  by  new  illustrations. 

Several  members  objected  to  the  use  of  the  word  ''white"  as 
too  indefinite. ^°  This  was  the  ground  on  which  Gallatin  was 
thought  to  have  based  his  objections  in  1790,  but,  said  Mr. 
McCahen,  there  could  no  longer  be  any  doubt  as  to  the  meaning 
of  the  word.^^  It  was  used  in  seventeen  or  eighteen  state  consti- 
tutions and  in  several  laws  of  Congress,  so  that  its  significance 
had  been  settled.^-  Chief-Justice  Gibson,  however,  thought  that, 
for  deciding  cases  of  disputed  color,  it  would  have  been  better 
to  fix  a  definite  rule,  such  as  forbiding  mulattoes  to  the  fourth 
generation  to  exercise  the  elective  franchise.^^ 

The  opponents  of  negro  suffrage  urged  that  negroes  were  not 
fit  to  be  voters,  trying  to  make  them  equal  to  whites  was  as 
useless  as  were  the  attempts  in  early  days  to  civilize  the  Indians, 
whose  college  education  had  aided  them  only  ''to  beg  from 
door  to  door,  and  ask  for  whiskey  in  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin. ' ' 
An  exceptional  Indian  or  African,  aided  by  the  novelty  of 
his  situation,  might  acquire  property  and  become  a  person  of 
some  consequence ;  but  most  of  the  negroes  in  Pennsylvania 
were  still  ignorant  and  degraded,  despite  great  efforts  that  had 
been  put  forth  to  improve  their  condition.^*  It  was  true  that 
they  were  in  poverty  and  had  had  little  time'  to  rise  in 
the  social  scale ;  but,  said  Mr.  Sterigere :  ' '  You  could  not  select 
40,000  white  people  from  the  lawest  ranks  of  society,  and  of 
the  most  worthless  character  who  would  not  in  the  course  of 
sixty  years  produce  thousands  of  instances  of  successful  industrv% 
enterprise  and  intellectual  powers.  This  comparison  and  view 
alone  must  satisfy  everyone  of  the  natural  inferiority  of  the 
negro  or  Ethopian  race."^^  Nine-tenths  of  them  were  degraded 
and  debased,  and,  though  only  a  few  already  voted,  there  were 
five  thousand  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  and  ten  thousand  else- 
where, who,  if  definitely  assured  that  they  had  a  right  to  vote. 


i»Pff.    Von.   Report,   1837-8..   p.   471,   Merril  ;    IX..   HTo.   Reigart :    X.,    pp.    6.    7. 

Merril  and  Forward,  182.  Konigmacher. 
"ififd..   III..    87. 

"Ihia.,  I.,  p.  472;   III.,  p.  89. 

"  Hobba  et  al  v.  Fogg,  op.   cit. 

^*Pa.  Con.  Report,  III.,  p.  83. 
"/6i(f.,  X.,  p.  86. 

[54] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  55 

would  ''rush  to  the  polls  in  senseless  and  unmeaning  triumph," 
the  colored  boot-blacks  and  chimney-sweeps  would  jostle  and 
elbow  respectable  citizens,  and  would  be  able  to  control  elections 
and  distribute  offices.^"  To  grant  negroes  the  elective  franchise 
would  encourage  them  to  come  into  Pennsylvania  from  the 
South."  This  fear  led  to  the  adoption,  by  56  to  50,  of  a  resolu- 
tion that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  expediency 
of  prohibiting  future  immigration  into  the  state  of  free  persons 
of  color  and  fugitive  slaves.^^  Neighboring  free  states  restricted 
the  migration  of  free  blacks  into  their  territory ;  the  slave  states 
were  trying  to  drive  them  out  of  theirs.  As  a  result,  especially 
if  negroes  were  granted  the  right  to  vote,  Pennsylvania  would 
be  "inundated  with  the  black  population,"  whose  habits  were 
''more  dissipated  than  those  of  any  other  portion  of  our  citi- 
zens." "Tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  this  base  and 
degraded  caste"  would  be  "vomited  upon  us,"  and  would 
congregate  in  various  places  and  control  local  elections.^^  ]Mr. 
Hopkinson  said:  "We  have  here  a  colored  population  of  fifty 
or  sixty  thousand  rapidly  increasing.  We  have  in  our  neigh- 
borhood, sister  states  overflowing  with  this  population,  who 
may  pour  them  in  upon  us  in  countless  numbers,  and  who  are 
now  doing  so  to  an  alarming  extent  without  the  encouragement 
now  proposed  to  be  given  to  them."-" 

If  such  great  numbers  of  colored  men  were  permitted  to  vote, 
they  would  be  sure  to  elect  black  office-holders.  Compromises 
in  closely  fought  elections  would  enable  them  to  become  judges 
and  legislators.  No  one  could  desire  to  see  such  a  result.  It 
would  be  unbearable  to  sit  in  a  legislature  even  with  a  negro 
who  was  worth  a  hundred  thousand  dollars.  Such  a  representa- 
tive would  surely  be  turned  out  of  doors,  for  no  one  would 
legislate  in  company  with  men  "whom  you  will  not  receive 
at  your  tables  or  in  your  houses  as  friends  and  acquaintances." 
It  would  not  do  to  make  voters  of  men  who  might  be  sold  into 
slavery  if  they   crossed  the  line  into   another  state.     It  was 


''Hid.,  I.,  p.  .541.  McDowell;  III.,  p.  8.3.  Martin;  IX.,  p.  .36.5,  Sterigere ;  IX. 
p.  383,  M'Cahen. 

^T  ma.,  I.,  p.  478.  Martin  . 

"T&id.,  v.,   pp.   44.3,   4,57. 

'" IWd.,  v.,  pp.  45.3,  455,  Mann,  Brown;  IX.,  365,  Sterigere. 

'"/ftitf.,  X.,  94. 

[55] 


56  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

not  to  be  thought  of  that  it  should  be  made  possible  for  a 
southern  gentleman  to  meet  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  taking 
part  in  national  councils,  the  same  slaves  whom,  a  few  years 
before,  he  had  manumitted  and  sent  to  Pennsylvania.'-^  Indeed 
a  fugitive  slave  could  be  elected  to  the  legislature,  if  the  color 
distinction  were  omitted ;  and  what  a  spectacle  it  would  be  if 
his  old  master  should  come  and  drag  him  out  of  his  seat  and 
send  him  home !  To  allow  negroes  to  vote  and  hold  office  would 
be  "amalgamation  to  the  fullest  extent."--  This  verbal  thun- 
der, which  had  been  used  in  North  Carolina,-'  was  employed  in 
about  thirty  five  of  the  petitions  and  memorials  that  were 
sent  to  the  convention.-*  A  member  inquired  what  specific 
object  was  feared  under  the  name  "amalgamation".-^  But 
what  meaning  was  attached  to  the  term  is  fairly  clear  from 
the  language  of  the  petitions:  all  thirty-five  of  them  asked, 
substantially,  "that  measures  may  be  taken  to  prevent  all  amal- 
gamation between  the  white  and  colored  population  in  regard 
to  the  government  of  our  state. ' '  A  more  serious  argument  was 
made  to  the  effect  that,  unless  white  people  were  willing  to  have 
their  brothers  and  sisters  and  sons  and  daughters  intermarry 
with  negroes,  it  was  a  mere  cheat  to  grant  black  men  the  elec- 
tive franchise.-^  Political  equality  would  be  impossible  without 
social  equality:  "For  suffrage  is  only  the  expression  of  the 
opinions  which  are  perpetually  maturing  under  the  influence 
of  social  intercourse  and  equality."-' 

The  feelings  of  white  people,  however,  made  any  real  equality 
permanently  unattainable.  "There  alwaj^s  must  be  an  inequal- 
ity," said  Mr.  Martin,  "because  negroes  are  naturally  inca- 
pable." -^  God  and  nature  had  made  a  distinction  between  the 
races.-^     It  was  not  their  condition  but  their  nature  that  had 


2'  Ibid.,  I.,  pp.  477,  478,  Martin  ;  III..  90.  Brown :  IX.,  p.  328,  Sturdevant, 
p.  366,  Sterls-ere.  p.   '682,  M'Cahen  :  X.,  81,   Payne,  95,  Hopkinson. 

--Ihid.,  v.,   p.   418,   Shellito;   IX.,   p.   .321,  Martin. 

■-^Ante.,  pp.  .^".7.  58. 

^*Pa.  Con.  Report.  1837-8..  V..  443;  VII.,  pp.  3,  272,  295,  357,  384;  VIII., 
pp.  92,  US,  161,  267;  IX.,  pp.  83,  114,  2.^2,  293,  294,  339;  X.,  pp.  29,  113. 

^Ihid.,  VIII.,  p.   117. 

^  Ibid.,   v.,    418,    Shellito;    IX.,   p.    322,   Martin. 

"  IMa.,  X.,  pp.  2'i2-25,  Woodward. 

-»rbid.,  III.,  83. 

^ima..  III.,  p.  90,  Brown. 

[56] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  57 

made  the  distinction  l)etween  the  races.""  It  was  a  matter  for 
consideration  "'whether  negroes  are  a  different  species  from  the 
white  man,  and  only  a  link  in  the  chain  of  being.  "^^  One  mem- 
l)er  declared  that  "he  would  maintain  on  that  floor  and  in  the 
world  to  come,  if  he  was  permitted,  that  the  negroes  are  a 
degraded  race,  and  the  whites  entitled  to  superiority  over 
them.""-  Another  quoted  the  slave-holder's  favorite  text,  the 
story  of  Noah's  curse  of  Canaan,  declared  that  the  negroes  were 
a  race  for  whom  the  Lord  had  provided  no  redemption,  and 
asserted  that  "the  Supreme  Being  who  has  created  us  all  had 
made  some  bond  and  some  free  men,  and  he  had  declared  that 
some  should  be  the  servant  of  the  servants  to  the  end  of  time."^^ 
Negroes  themselves  did  not  desire  to  vote,  for  they  knew 
that  the  prejudices  of  white  people  were  such  that  the  elective 
franchise  would  not  benefit  the  blacks.  The  attempt  to  go  to 
the  polls  would  be  attended  with  bloodshed  and  even  loss  of 
life.^*  A  race  war  would  be  inevitable.'"'  "They  could  not 
be  placed  on  an  equality  in  political  and  social  rights,  with  the 
white  citizens.  No  white  citizen  would  permit  a  negro  to 
educate  his  children,  or  to  marry  into  his  family.  "^^  In  Phila- 
delphia, where  there  were  several  thousand  of  them,"  said  Mr. 
Brown,  "the  signal  for  them  to  attend  and  give  their  votes 
would  be  the  signal  for  their  destruction.  ...  In  twenty- 
four  hours  .  .  .  not  a  negro  house  in  the  city  or  county 
would  be  left  standing.  ...  It  was  the  duty  of  legislators 
to  consult  the  public  feeling  and  not  do  violence  to  it  by  any  of 
their  acts. ' ' "'  "Sir.  Sturdevant  said :  ' '  Injury,  annihilation  to 
the  blacks  would  be  the  result  of  making  him  the  equal  at  the 
ballot-box  with  the  white,  but  you  can  never  force  the  citizens  of 
this  commonwealth  to  believe  or  practice  it."^^  Mr.  Sterigere 
quoted  the  words  of  Jefferson :     ' '  Deep  rooted  prejudices  enter- 


^Ibia.,  X..  p.   85.  sterigere. 
^^Ibia.,   IX.  p.   S64. 
^Ibid.,   IX..   p.   8:;5,   Sturdevant. 
^Ibid.,   IX.,   pp.   386.    .387.   M'Cahen. 
^Ihid.,   IX.,   p.   :^80,   M'Cahen. 
'^Ibid.,  IX.,  p.   321.  Martin. 
^'Ibia.,  v.,   414,   M'Cahen. 
^'' Ibid.,  IX.,  393. 
^Ibid.,  ix'.,  p.  328. 


[57] 


58  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

tallied  by  the  whites,  ten  thousand  recollections  by  the  blacks  of 
injuries  they  have  sustained;  the  real  distinctions  which  nature 
hath  made ;  and  many  other  circumstances  will  divide  us  into 
parties,  and  produce  convulsions  which  will  probably  never  end 
but  in  the  extermination  of  one  or  the  other  race ! '  '^^  It  would, 
therefore,  be  cruel  and  wrong  to  "excite  hopes  and  hold  out  the 
delusive  shadows  of  privileges  to  black  men  which  must  end  in 
disappointment. '  '*°  It  were  far  better  that,  as  in  the  South,  they 
should  be  taught  from  cradle  to  grave  that  they  were  inferior  to 
the  white  man  and  were  trained  not  to  feel  their  degradation, 
than  that  they  should  be  deluded  by  an  empty,  formal  equality 
which  would  "Keep  the  word  of  promise  to  the  ear 
And  break  it  to  the  hope.'  "*^ 

The  men  who  applied  the  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the 
negroes  were  merely  declaiming,  and  did  not  themselves  really 
wish  to  make  negroes  equal  with  white  men.*-  The  philan- 
thropic sentiment  about  men  of  color  was  the  result  of  misguid- 
ed zeal.  Men  of  wealth  who  contributed  to  the  anti-slavery  cause 
might  better  lend  a  helping  hand  to  thousands  of  white  people 
who  were  actuated  by  a  laudable  ambition  never  felt  by 
negroes.^^  "The  state  of  the  white  population  is  growing  worse. 
We  are  fast  treading  on  the  heels  of  Europe."  The  people  of 
Pennsylvania  had  nothing  to  do  with  bringing  negroes  from 
Africa  and  were  clear  of  sin.  No  one  imagined  that  the  blacks 
were  not  better  situated  than  in  their  aboriginal  home.  This 
agitation  against  slavery  originated  in  England  among  philan- 
thropists who  overlooked  the  squalor  of  the  white  people  around 
them  and  wasted  their  funds  and  their  sentiment  on  distant 
Africans.  "A  great  man  who  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  hunt 
out  something  to  build  a  name  upon  set  it  on  foot.  A  species 
of  fanaticism  sometimes  takes  possession  of  good  men,  and  they 
are  carried  away  by  a  belief,  that  a  great  deal  more  is  yet  to 
be  done  than  ever  has  been  done."^*    The  only  object  in  trying 


"/Did.,   X..   p.    85. 

*'>Il)ia.,  I.,   477,   Martin. 

"Ibia.,  III..  91,  Brown. 

"Ibid.,  I.,  p.  477;   IX.,  p.  M22,  Martin. 

"/Mtf.,  IX.,   p.   322,   Martin. 

«/6itf..  III.,   p.  84,  Martin. 

[58] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  59 

to  secure  negro  suffrage  was  to  degrade  white  laborers.^'  "The 
elevation  of  the  black  man  is  the  degradation  of  the  white 
man. ' '" 

The  opponents  of  color  discrimination  of  course  argued  that 
taxation  without  representation  was  unjust.  There  v.^ere  rich 
colored  men  in  Bucks  county,  one  worth  nearly  a  hundred 
thousand:  the  elective  franchise  ought  not  to  be  withheld  from 
one  who  had  so  deep  a  stake  in  society.^'  Van  Buren's  speech 
in  the  New  York  convention  of  1821  was  quoted/^  and  other 
references  were  made  to  the  well-worn  phrase  ;'*'''  but  the  argu- 
ment was  not  elaborated.  It  was  remembered  that  negroes  had 
fought  bravely  in  the  Revolution,""  and  extracts  were  read  from 
General  Jackson's  proclamations  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of 
New  Orleans,  one  of  which  called  on  negroes  to  fight  "as  sons 
of  freedom,"  the  other  of  which  praised  their. valorous  qualities, 
and  neither  of  which,  said  the  speaker,  was  a  negro  memorial. ^^ 
Disfranchisement  of  the  blacks  would  be  irreconcilable  with  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.^-  "In  the  day  of  retribution 
there  will  be  no  inquiries  made  as  to  whetlier  v.'e  had  white 
or  black  skins,  so  that  we  have  clear  hearts;  therefore  let  us 
do  justice  to  all,  and  oppress  none,"  said  Mr.  Earle,  and  he 
quoted  the  golden  rule  and  the  famous  verse  from  Acts  which 
declares  that  God  "hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men 
for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.  "^^  Where  would  negroes 
obtain  justice  if  not  in  Pennsylvania?  Indeed  there  might 
be  some  violence  done  them  if  they  attempted  to  vote;  "but 
if  injustice  will  be  done,  let  it  be  done  against  the  law,  and 
not  with  the  law.""  Rights  cannot  be  surrendered  merely  to 
avoid  provoking  the  ire  of  a  mob.^^  Even  in  the  South,  white 
and  black  sit  at  the  same  communion  table,  because  it  is  real- 


"  Ibid.,  I..   477.,  Martin. 

*'ima.,  IX..   321.  Martin. 

*'' ima.,   T..  p.   57G,   Jenks 

*'Ibia.,   IX..  376,   Reigart. 

*"  lOia.,  IX.,  p.  322.  Dickey:  X.,  p.  118,  .Tenks. 

'^  Ibid.,  X.,  p.  92,   Forward. 

"/6ttf.,  X..  p.  40,  Darlington. 

'■^Ibid.,  IX.,   p.  3ri5,  Earle,   p.   355,  Biddle. 

"  Ibid.,   IX..   p.    336 ;   X.,    56,    Darlington. 

"Ibid.,  IX.,  p.  333,  McClay. 

^Jbid.,  X.,  p.  6-7,   Merril. 

[59] 


60  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

ized  that  all  are  equal  in  the  Creator's  sight.'"  This  doctrine 
that  black  men  were  incapable  of  self  government  was  a  danger- 
ous one  to  put  forth  in  this  country  for  its  application  might 
be  extended  to  some  white  men.'"''  There  could  be  political 
equality  without  social  equality.  Giving  blacks  tlie  elective  fran- 
chise would  make  them  contented  and  perhaps  useful  as  citi- 
zens, but  depriving  them  of  it  would  cause  discontent  and  hatred 
to  prevail  among  them.'**  The  idea  that  they  were  naturally 
inferior  was  mistaken.  Mr.  Earle  referred  to  Alexander  II. 
Everett,  a  democratic  candidate  for  Congress  at  the  late  elections 
in  Massachusetts  who  proved  from  Herodotus  that  the  ancient 
Egyptians,  the  fathers  of  the  sciences  and  arts,  were  men  of 
black  skins,  crisped  hair,  and  Ethopian  extraction,  and  who 
called  the  prevailing  motion  that  these  characteristics  were  signs 
of  inferiority  an  absurd  and  barbarous  prejudice  which  the 
light  of  knowledge  would  eventually  dissipate.'^  He  also  re- 
ferred to  Daniel  O'Connell  who  said  that  "the  worst  of  all 
aristocracies  is  that  which  prevails  in  America — an  aristocracy 
which  had  been  aptly  denominated  that  of  the  human  skin.""^ 
This  sentiment,  in  the  very  spirit  of  Charles  Sumner,  when  thirty 
years  later  he  thundered  his  denunciation  of  the  aristocracy  of 
color,  was  incorporated  in  over  a  score  of  petitions  against  dis- 
franchisement, which  prayed  "that  no  change  in  the  existing 
constitution  may  be  made  having  a  tendency  to  create  distinc- 
tions in  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizens  of  this  commonwealth 
founded  merely  upon  their  complexion."*'^ 

The  argument  that  the  right  of  suffrage  would  induce  free 
negroes  to  come  into  the  state  was  met  by  denial."-  They  did 
not  increase  as  fast  as  whites  and  their  death  rate  was  higher. 
They  might  be  prevented  from  immigrating  too  rapidly  by  re- 
quiring from  three  to  seven  years  residence  before  they  could 
vote.®^    Only  one  member  referred  to  the  oppressive  restrictions 


'^  Ibia.,  X..   p.    12,    MeiTil. 

'•>'•  Ibid.,  X.,  p.  IH. 

'"iOfri.,  X.,  p.   10.  Forward. 

"'>  Ibid.,  IX..   p.  844. 

'^lbi(t.,  IX..  p.  34f». 

"7bz(7.,  VII.,  p.   29.5;   VIII.,  pp.    11-3,   117,   161,   193;   IX.,   pp.   41,   114,    115, 

T.'jS,    293,  339;   XI.,    p.    3. 

^  Ibid.,  X.,  p.  (56.  Dickey. 

*^Thi(t.,  X..  p.    n.   Forward. 

[60] 


OLBlilCII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  61 

ill  other  states  as  an  argument  for  giving  the  blacks  an  asylum 
in  Pennsylvania.  He  thought  it  "the  hardest  thing  in  the  world 
to  deny"  them  '"a  resting  place  for  the  soles  of  their  feet." 
But  even  he  said:  "If  there  is  any  prospect  that  the  chains 
of  the  slave  will  be  riveted  faster  upon  him,  in  consequence  of 
the  efforts  which  are  made  for  his  liberation,  then  it  is  obvious 
that  we  need  entertain  no  great  fear  that  the  State  of  Pennsj'l- 
vania  will  be  inundated — with  the  black  population  from  other 
States.  "'^^  Only  one  member  was  bold  enough  or  inclined  to 
ask  why  people  should  not  be  permitted  to  send  a  negro  to 
the  legislature  if  they  chose."''  This  evidence,  if  it  were  needed, 
could  be  adduced  to  show  the  existence  of  a  deep-seated  prejudice 
against  the  negroes.  Indeed  one  of  their  friends  admitted  that 
they  were  not  a  desirable  class  of  population,  but  argued  that, 
having  been  brought  from  Africa  through  violence  and  fraud, 
they  had  peculiar  claims  to  being  treated  with  justice  and  hu- 
manity.®'' Members  expressed  the  hope  and  belief  that  prejudice 
against  the  negro,  which  it  was  hinted,  did  not  prevail  in  Euro- 
pean countries,""  had  been  mitigated  and  would  die  away  in 
America  f^  but  its  existence  at  the  time  was  admitted  as  a 
fact.  Mr.  Maclay  declared  that  all  the  arguments  against  the 
iiegro  could  be  summed  up  by  an  old  rhyme: 

"  I  do  not  like  you.  Doctor  Fell ! 
The  reason  why  I  cannot  tell : 
But  this  I  do  know  passing  well — 
I  do  not  like  you,  Doctor  Fell."'''' 

On  the  side  of  disfranchisement,  it  was  argued  that  it  was  no 
injustice  to  deny  black  men  the  suffrage  as  long  as  women  did 
not  vote;''"'  and  that  if  male  negroes  were  admitted,  by  the 
same  reasoning,  female  negroes  ought  to  be  admitted  to  the 
elective  franchise."^     It  was  urged  that   negroes  Avere   neither 


"  IbM.,  v.,  pp.  4r)(;.  457,  Earle. 

"5 /birf.,  X.,  p.   11.   Forward. 

"'  Ibid.,  IX..  p.  y,y.2,  Maclay. 

«"  Ibia.,  X.,  p.   12,   Forward. 

"^Ibid.,  IX.,  pp.  851,  352,  Meredith,  p.  354.  Biddle. 

^^Ibid.,  IX.,  p.   258. 

'"Ibid.,  IX..  p.  :^79,  M'Cahen   . 

■oibid.,  v.,  p.  41H,  M'Cahen. 

[61] 


62  BUJ.LET1N    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

freemen  nor  citizens  within  the  meaning  of  the  Constitution. 
and  really  had  no  right  to  vote."-  In  the  debate  on  printing 
a  negro  memorial,  Mr.  Sterigere  said  they  were  not  citizens  and 
had  no  more  ri^'nt  to  '■■■■  v-^'^^-a  :'>]■  \^^  <■••  ^..-i^  ol"  the  monarchs 
of  England  and  France."  The  constitution  and  the  laws  recog- 
nized in  them  a  distinct  people.  They  were  excluded  from  the 
militia,  from  the  polls,  from  the  jury  box,  and  from  office.  A 
man  might  be  a  freeman  and  yet  not  a  citizen ;  negroes  could 
exercise  none  of  the  rights  of  citizenship."*  Only  white  persons 
could  be  naturalized  under  the  federal  laws.  The  supreme 
courts  of  Connecticut  and  Kentucky  had  decided  that  negroes 
were  not  citizens,  and  Judge  Kent  had  said :  ' '  They  are 
essentially  a  degraded  caste,  of  inferior  rank  and  condition  in 
society.  "^^  The  disabilities  laid  on  them  in  early  days  showed 
that  they  were  not  included  by  the  framers  of  the  state  constitu- 
tion among  those  "born  equally  free  and  independent."  They 
could  be  among  those  "entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities 
of  the  citizens  in  the  several  states"  unless  it  should  be  assumed 
that  this  provision  of  the  federal  constitution  was  being  system- 
atically violated.  The  fact  that  all  the  Southern  states  forbade 
free  negroes  to  carry  tirearms  proved  that  they  are  not  a  part 
of  "the  people",  whose  right  to  keep  and  bear  arms  was  never 
to  be  denied."*' 

On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Maelay  declared  that  a  provision  for 
excluding  free  negroes  from  the  state  would  violate  the  second 
section  of  the  fourth  article  of  the  United  States  constitution; 
that  there  was  no  evidence  that  the  framers  of  the  Pennsylvania 
constitution  of  1790  meant  white  freemen  when  they  used  the 
word  "freemen",  and  that  the  preamble  of  the  law  passed  in 
1780  to  provide  for  the  gradual  emancipation  of  slaves  showed 
that  negroes  were  made  freemen  and  therefore  citizens.'^"  Others 
tried  to  justify  negro  suffrage  by  the  theory  of  social  compact. 
"By  suffrage,"  said  Mr.  Rogers,  "I  apprehend  is  meant,  in 
its  most  enlarged  sense,  that  expression  of  will  by  which  man 


^Ibia.,  v..  p.  417.  Cummins!. 

^"■IWa.,  IX..    p.    221. 

""^IMd.,  v.,  p.  422. 

■"■Ibid.,  IX..  pp.  S60-364.   Sterigere. 

■"'Ihid.,  IX.,  pp.  .S25,  326,   Sturdevant. 

^  Ibid.,  v.,   pp.    42],   451. 

[62] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  63 

signilics  his  disposition  to  enter  into  the  social  compact — and 
to  institute  government.  It  is  by  that  also  he  manifests  his  assent 
or  dissent  to  the  measures  of  that  government.     It  is  evidently, 
then,  a  natural  and  inherent  right,  and  not  at  any  time  surren- 
dered ;  for,  by  the  exercise  of  it  alone,  can  man  pass  from  a  state 
of  nature  into  the  social  compact.  "^^    Another  opinion  is  record- 
ed:    "If  society,  when  forming  itself  into  the  social  state,  had 
conferred  upon  any  body  of  men  a  right,  they  specified  the 
grounds  upon  which  they  hold  it.     If,  then,  under  the  social 
compact,  originally  adopted,  men  had  become  members  of  that 
society  for  life,  and  had  brought  up  their  children  under  it,  he 
held  it  to  be  politically  impossible  for  that  social  body,  in  or 
out  of  the  convention,  to  disfranchise  those  men.""^     Another, 
though  friendly  to  the  negroes,  dissented  from  this  Rousseauism : 
• '  The  question  cannot  be  placed  on  the  ground  of  natural  rights. 
We  have  no  natural  rights.     We  are  making  a  rule  of  govern- 
ment,   and    a    government    founded    on    the    laws    of    nature, 
would    be    a   return    to   savage   life,    where   every   man    could 
do  as    he    pleased    making    the    law    for    himself."*"     One    of 
the     opponents     of     negro     suffrage     put    a    second    edge    on 
the  principle  of  the  consent  of  the  governed:     "The  negroes 
never    assented,    and    their   presence    here,    since    it   was   pro- 
cured   by    fraud    and    force,     could    not    be    construed    into 
an  adoption  of  the  country,  or  an  acquiescence  in  its  form  of 
government.     They  were  brought  here   to  be  slaves,   and  not 
freemen;  and  they  were  slaves  and  not  freemen  when  the  prin- 
ciples of  government  were  agreed  on,  and  when  its  foundations 
were  laid."     Having  never  "consented"  to  the  government  or 
been  admitted  into  the  social  compact,  the.y  w^re  in  the  position 
of  non-naturalized  foreigners.^^     It  was  not  explained  whose 
subjects  they  were.    In  this  view,  free  colored  people  were  native 
aliens,  men  without  a  country.     A  similar  idea  runs  through 
Chief-Justice  Gibson's  opinion.     He  describes  the  black  laws  of 
the  18th  century  and  asks:     "If  freemen,  in  a  political  sense, 
were  subject  of  these  cruel  and  degrading  oppressions,  what  must 


-■*IMd.,    I.,    p.    474. 

"<» IMa.,  X.,  p.  5o,   Scott;  X.,  p.  68,  Chaimcy. 

^Ibia.,  X.,  p.  5,  Merril. 

^^Ihid.,  X.,  pp.   19,  20,   Woodward. 

[63] 


64  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

have  been  the  lot  of  their  brethren  in  bondage  ? ' ',  and  uses  these 
laws  as  evidence,  "that  no  colored  race  was  party  to  our  social 
compact."  The  word  "freedom"  signifies  more  than  exemption 
from  involuntary  service.  "The  freedom  of  a  municipal  corpora- 
tion, or  body  politic,  implies  fellowship  and  participation  of 
corporate  rights;  But  an  inhabitant  of  an  incorporated  place 
who  is  neither  servant  nor  slave,  though  bound  by  its  laws  may 
be  no  freeman  in  respect  of  its  government."  "The  word 
freeman  was  applied  in  a  peculiar  sense  to  the  political  compact 
of  our  ancestors,  resting  like  a  corporation  on  a  charter  from 
the  crown.  "^- 

The  most  important  phase  of  these  debates  is  still  to  be 
reviewed.  Much  fear  was  expressed  that  the  discussion  of  the 
question  of  negro  suffrage  would  cause  great  excitement  and 
endanger  the  safety  of  the  union.  Many  members  desired  to 
leave  the  question  for  the  supreme  court  to  decide  and  wished  to 
dispense  with  the  reading  or  printing  of  memorials  in  favor  of 
the  colored  people.*"  Discussion  of  it,  said  Mr.  Agnew,  would 
bring  up  the  whole  matter  of  slavery  concerning  which  ' '  excite- 
ment of  a  frightful  kind  prevails  throughout  many  of  the  states." 
Negro  suffrage  "was  a  delicate  question  and  should  be  spoken 
of  with  delicacy.  We  should  agitate  it  as  little  as  possible."^* 
Charges  were  made  that  the  abolitionists  were  responsible  for 
pressing  the  right  of  negroes  to  vote  among  the  people,  in  the 
convention  and  in  the  courts  of  justice,  and  that  the  agitation 
of  this  question  was  an  abolitionist  scheme  to  bring  about  a 
collision  between  the  North  and  the  South.  During  the  early 
part  of  the  discussion,  in  June  1837,  a  member  who  opposed  the 
color  discrimination  said  it  might  if  adopted  endanger  the 
amended  constitution  before  the  people  because  abolitionists 
would  vote  against  it.''^  A  member  on  the  other  side  was  astound- 
ed: "If  that  be  their  object  the  sooner  the  people  of  Pennsyl- 
vania know  it  the  better.  He  had  thought  it  was  their  rights 
as  human  beings  the  abolitionists  had  been  endeavoring  to  estab- 


»- Hohhs  et  al  V.  Fogg,  p.  6.  Watts,  p.  553  . 

*^  IMd.,  TIL,  p.  87,  Darlington,  p.  91,  Brown;  V..  pp..  415.  419:  IX..  pp.  220- 
282. 

'^Ibid.,  IX.,  367. 

^"^  Ibid.,  v.,  p.  423:  Cummins,  IX.,  pp  321,  322.  Martin,  p.  327,  Sturdevant: 
X.,  p.  21,  Woodward. 

[64] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  65 

lish,  not  their  rights  to  a  political  equality."**^  To  permit  negroes 
to  vote,  to  make  it  possible  that  a  black  should  be  sent  to  Con- 
gress, would  be  a  violation  of  covenant  engagements  with  the 
South,  an  otfence  and  a  gross  insult  to  the  slave  states,  who 
would  never  have  joined  the  Union  had  they  anticipated  that 
free  states  would  make  voters  of  their  fugitive  slaves.*" 

In  reply,  Mr.  Earle  said  that  those  who  argued  that  granting 
negroes  the  elective  franchise  would  cause  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union  were  "paying  but  a  poor  compliment  to  the  nullifiers 
of  the  South,  the  great  sticklers  for  the  right  of  each  state  to 
regulate  its  own  concerns. '  '**  Several  members  who  denied  that 
they  were  abolitionists,  complained  bitterly  that  the  Southern 
States  had  suppressed  the  right  of  petition  in  Congress  and 
were  trying  to  put  dow^n  free  discussion  of  the  slavery  question 
in  the  North. "^^  "When  the  sacred  rights  of  petition,  and  the 
freedom  of  discussion  and  the  liberty  of  the  press  are  decried 
by  the  free  representatives  of  the  citizens  of  free  states,"  said 
Mr.  Dickey,  "then  it  is  indeed  time  to  calculate  the  value  of 
the  Union."  One  member  declared  that  arguments  against 
negro  suffrage  were  arguments  for  slavery."*^  Another  would 
refuse  to  appease  the  wrath  of  the  South  by  doing  injustice  to 
a  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  Pennsylvania,  and  expressed  indigna- 
tion at  the  opinions  of  Governor  jMcDuffy  of  South  Carolina, 
that  "slavery  is  a  necessary  ingredient  of  an  unmixed  republic," 
and  the  conclusions  of  a  writer  in  the  Charleston  Mercury  who 
"trusted  he  had  proved  that  slavery  was  approved  by  God  and 
the  patriarchs,  and  Christ  and  the  Apostles,  and  that  to  say 
it  was  sinful  to  hold  slaves  was  impious ' ',  and  at  the  attempt  of 
Southern  States  to  secure  penal  legislation  against  those  who  in 
the  North,  declared  their  belief  "that  slavery  is  a  sin  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  man. '  '^^  The  speech  of  Mr.  Reigart  of  Lancas- 
ter county,  on  January  18,  1838,  deserves  special  attention.  He 
denied  that  he  was  an  abolitionist  or  that  he  was  "among  those 


^"lUd.,  III.,  p.  89,  Brown. 

^■'ima..  v..   p.   418,    Shellito;    IX.,   p.   -367.   Storigere,   p.   35-3,    Meredith;   X..   p. 
22,  Woodward. 
^  Ibid.,  X.,  p.  ;;!). 

'^  Ibid.,  X.,  pp.   41.  42.     Darlington. 
™7birf.,  X.,   p.    66.    Decker,    p.    121,    Purviance. 
*^Jbld.,  IX.,  p.  353,  Meredith. 

[65] 


66  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

who  are  disposed  to  minister  to  the  morbid  sensibilities  of  the 
southern  politicians."  He  denounced  the  aggressiveness  of  the 
slave  power.  He  contrasted  the  care  taken  to  preserve  neutrality 
on  the  Canadian  border  with  the  systematic  violation  of  neutrali- 
ty in  Texas.  He  referred  to  the  right  of  petition,  which  had 
been  overthrown  with  the  aid'  of  Northern  votes:  "These  rec- 
reant degenerate  sons  of  patriotic  sires  .  .  .  lent  themselves^ 
passive  instruments,  to  the  arrogant,  imprudent,  reckless  pre- 
tensions of  the  hot  bloods  of  the  South,  for  the  purpose  of 
overthrowing  this  great  principle  of  liberty."  The  Southern 
states  were  memoralizing  Northern  legislatures  to  prevent  their 
citizens  from  writing,  printing,  nay  almost  from  thinking,  on 
the  subject  of  domestic  slavery."  "These  aggressions  men  are 
called  upon  not  only  to  permit  but  to  applaud.  We  are  told 
that  southern  gentlemen  are  high-bom,  high-minded,  honorable 
and  just.  .  .  .  The  North  has  suffered  much  and  great  in- 
justice from  the  South,  and  the  time  has  come  when  northern 
men  should  speak  plainly  'without  reservation,  equivocation 
or  mental  reservation.'  "  His  attitude  was  similar  to  that 
of  Mr.  Jay  in  the  New  York  Convention  of  1821,^-  and  his  argu- 
ment also  was  similar.  "My  principal  objection  .  .  .  is  that 
it  will  be  viewed  in  the  South  as  the  triumph  of  Southern 
principles  in  a  Northern  State. ' '  In  conclusion  he  said :  ' '  The 
vote  we  are  about  to  give  will  excite  great  surprise  every- 
where. In  the  South,  it  will  be  celebrated  almost  with  bonfire, 
illumination,  feasting,  and  every  demonstration  of  joy.  In  it 
they  will  see  the  triumph  of  Southern  principles  in  good  old 
staid  Pennsylvania;  and  we  shall  be  obliged  to  witness  the 
galling  spectacle  of  the  triumph  of  the  dark  spirit  of  slavery 
in  our  native  state.  "^^ 

The  vote,  January  20,  on  Mr.  Martin's  motion  to  insert  the 
word  "white"  resulted,  yeas  77,  nays  45.^*  Not  all  of  the 
minority  were  in  favor  of  permitting  negroes  to  vote  on  an 
equality  with  whites.  There  were  several  members  who  real- 
ized the  incapacity  of  the  negroes  and  the  prejudice  against  them, 
who  were  of  liberal  sentiments,  and  who  wished  to  make  pro- 

^Ante,  pp.  31-32. 
o^lWa.,   IX.,   pp.   370-377. 

•>*  ima.,  X.,  p.  io«. 

[66] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  67 

vision  that  negroes  might  vole  under  certain  restrictions,  or  at 
a  future  time,  when  negroes  should  have  made  greater  progress 
and  the  feeling  of  white  people  toward  them  should  have  become 
more  favorable."^  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  the  disfranchising 
clause  was  carried,  j\Ir.  Scott,  of  Philadelphia,  moved  to  add  a 
proviso  that,  at  any  time  after  1860,  the  legislature  might  ex- 
tend the  right  of  suffrage  to  colored  persons  on  whatever  condi- 
tions should  seem  expedient;  but  this  motion  was  defeated  by  a 
vote  of  73  to  36.^'*  On  January  22,  Mr.  Dunlop  offered  an 
amendment  providing  that  negroes,  who  had  resided  three  years 
in  the  State  and  owned  property  of  the  value  of  $200  above 
all  incumbrances,  should  have  a  right  to  vote,  and  that  those 
not  qualified  to  vote  under  this  provision  should  be  exempt  from 
taxation.-'"  This  amendment  was  defended  on  the  principle  of 
"taxation  and  representation,"'*^  and  the  speeches  and  vote  of 
]\Iartin  Van  Buren  in  the  New  York  convention  of  1821  were 
cited  in  its  favor.  "The  vote  of  Mr.  Van  Buren  had  been  pub- 
lished in  all  the  papers  of  the  South ;  but  .  .  .  the  Southern 
people  did  not  entertain  such  narrow  prejudices  against  him, 
and  were  not  so  illiberal  as  to  oppose  him  on  that  account.  .  .  . 
The  fact  was,  that  the  Southern  people  admitted  that  the  pres- 
ent state  of  things  in  relation  to  slavery  was  wrong,  and  they 
only  waited  a  propitious  period  to  abrogate  the  evil."""  These 
were  the  words  of  one  of  the  most  earnest  and  consistent  oppon- 
ents of  the  color  discrimination.  They  indicate  that  much  of 
the  opposition  to  disfranchisement  was  based  on  broad  humani- 
tarian and  democratic  principles,  and  that  the  attitude  represent- 
ed by  Eeigart's  fierce  denunciations  of  the  South  was  just  be- 
ginning to  become  important.  The  vote  on  Dunlop 's  amendment 
resulted  in  its  defeat  by  86  to  36,  and  when  it  was  offered 
again  with  $250  instead  of  $200  and  a  proviso  that  negroes 
should  not  be  permitted  to  hold  office  it  was  again  rejected, 
this  time  by  a  vote  of  84  to  40.^°°    Another  amendment,  offered 


'^Ihid.,   IX.,   pp.   221.   3.50,   351,   .352,  Meredith;    IX.,   p.    391,   Brown:    X.,   p. 
56,   Scott. 

^Jiid.,  X.,  p.  107. 

"' Ihia.,  X.,  p.   11 

^nid.,  X.,  p.   lis    Jenks. 

^^Jhid..  X..   pp.   124,  125,  Earle. 

"'iftjd..  X..  p.  125. 

[67] 


•6  8  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

by  2\ir.  iMerrill,  extending  the  suffrage  to  free  men  of  color 
who  could  read  and  write  was  defeated  b}^  the  still  more  decisive 
vote  of  91  to  26/  An  attempt  was  also  made  to  secure  a  ckiuse, 
like  that  in  the  Connecticut  Constitution  of  1818,  providing  that 
all  persons  entitled  to  vote  before  the  ratification  of  the  new 
constitution  should  continue  to  have  the  right  of  suffrage ;  but 
the  motion  was  rejected  by  73  to  42.-  Then  the  report  of 
the  committee  as  amended  by  the  insertion  of  the  word  "white" 
was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  88  to  33.^ 

There  seems  to  have  been  no  tangible  principle  as  far  as  the 
geographical  distribution  of  the  votes  was  concerned.  One  might 
expect  that  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  state  where  free  negroes 
were  most  numerous  opposition  to  negro  suffrage  would  have 
been  most  general,  but  such  was  not  the  case.  The  convention 
was  composed  of  senatorial  and  representative  delegates.  Of 
seven  representative  delegates  from  Philadelphia  city,  where  the 
number  of  blacks  was  largest,  four  voted  against  the  disfran- 
chising amendment.  One  out  of  eight  from  Philadelphia  county, 
two  of  three  from  Bucks  county,  four  of  six  from  Lancaster, 
one  of  two  from  Adams,  and  all  four  from  Chester  also  voted 
on  the  side  of  the  black  man.  Perhaps  the  influence  of  the 
Quakers  in  eastern  Pennsylvania  had  mitigated  the  race  antip- 
athy of  the  whites.  Comparing  the  vote  with  that  in  the  New 
York  convention  of  1821,  it  is  obvious  that  Pennsylvania  was 
much  less  liberal  toward  the  negro  than  was  New  York  seven- 
teen years  before.  Indeed  there  was  a  larger  proportionate 
minority  on  the  side  of  the  colored  man  in  both  Tennessee  and 
North  Carolina.  One  member,  who,  had  he  voted,  would  have 
sided  with  the  minority  shovild  not  be  forgotten.  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  a  native  of  Vermont,  and  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth 
College,  had  come  down  into  Pennsylvania  and  established  him- 
self as  a  lawyer  in  York  county  near  the  border  of  Maryland. 
Here  he  observed  the  workings  of  the  fugitive  slave  law,  saw 
one  of  the  worst  aspects  of  negro  servitude,  helped  defend  colored 
men  claimed  as  fugitives,  and  developed  an  intense  hatred  of 


» Ibid ,  X.,  pp.  120.  i;;o. 
» iwa.,  X.,  p.  181. 

^  tbia.,  X.,  p.  134. 


[68] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  6& 

slavery.^  He  took  au  active  part  in  the  debates  of  the  conven- 
tion, but  strange  to  say  never  spoke  or  voted  on  the  negro 
suffrage  question.  When  the  constitution  was  finally  adopted 
however,  he  refused  to  sign  it  because  he  could  not  sanction 
any  discrimination  on  account  of  race  or  color.^ 

Pennsylvania  was  the  last  state  in  which,  after  negroes  had 
once  voted  under  a  semblance  of  legality,  a  color  discrimination 
was  adopted  excluding  them  from  the  electorate.  Deleware  had 
disfranchised  them  in  1792,  Kentucky  in  1799,  Maryland  in 
1801,  New  Jersey  in  1807,  Connecticut  in  1818,  Tennessee  in 
1834,  North  Carolina  in  1835,  and  Pennsylvania  in  1838.  New 
York  had  imposed  severe  restrictions  in  1821,  and  the  Federal 
Government  passed  the  last  act  permitting  negroes  to  vote  in  the 
territories  in  1809  in  organizing  the  Territory  of  Illinois.  In 
^Maryland,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Connecticut  and  Delaware, 
legislative  or  judicial  action  had  been  taken,  before  or  at  the 
time  the  disfranchising  measures  were  adopted,  that  impliedly 
or  expressly  recognized  that  colored  persons  of  some  descriptions 
had  had  a  right  to  vote.  In  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina, 
they  voted  in  such  great  numbers  that  the  legality  of  negro 
suffrage  had  to  be  admitted,  although  it  was  doubtful  how  their 
right  to  vote  was  first  acquired.  In  Pennsylvania  the  right 
was  more  doubtful  still,  and  the  supreme  court  of  that  state, 
after  the  privilege  had  been  totally  abrogated,  decided  that  it 
had  never  existed.  In  none  of  the  states,  probably,  was  negro- 
voting  uniform ;  in  many  localities  they  did  not  vote  at  all,  and' 
where  they  did  vote,  many  never  came  to  the  polls.  The- 
action  to  disfranchise  them,  at  least  in  some  instances,  was  taken 
because  the  number  of  them  who  voted  was  becoming  consider- 
able, even  their  friends  practically  admitting  that  it  would  not 
do  to  let  them  have  any  real  influence  in  elections.  Many  of  those' 
who  opposed  disfranchisement  were  men  of  broad  views  and' 
liberal  sentiments,  were  influenced  by  the  Revolutionary  ideals^ 
of  lil)erty  and  equality  and  hy  the  principles  of  the  first  cham- 
pions of  the  anti-slavery  cause,  and  were  often  men  of  great 
intellectual   ability,    such    as  Governor   Livingston,    Chancellor 


McCall,  S.  W.,  Thaddeus  tSterens,  Am.  Statesmen  Series,  pp.  20,  21,  26,. 
Ibid.,  p.  48. 

[69] 


70  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

Kent,  Eiifiis  King,  Martin  Van  Biiren  and  Judge  Gaston.  A  new 
element  of  opposition  to  restrictions  on  the  right  of  colored  men 
to  the  elective  franchise  is  disclosed  in  the  speeches  of  Jay  in  the 
New  York  convention  of  1821  and  of  Reigart  in  the  Pennsylvania 
convention  of  1837  and  1838,  and  in  the  charges  that  abolitionists 
were  championing  the  side  of  the  negro.  Henceforward  the 
question  of  negro  suffrage  was  destined  to  become  increasingly 
involved  with  the  question  of  slavery  and  with  the  sectional  con- 
troversy between  the  North  and  the  South. 


[70] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  71 


CHAPTER  III 
SUFFRAGE  AND  ANTI-SLAVERY,  1838  TO  1846 

The  question  of  negro  suffrage  had  several  times,  up  to  1838, 
been  a  matter  of  considerable  popular  concern.  The  discussions 
on  the  subject  were,  however,  more  or  less  isolated:  they  were  not 
results  or  part  of  an  agitation  continued  through  many  years. 
The  question  was  long  to  remain  a  minor  one  and  did  not  be- 
come a  leading  issue  till  after  the  Civil  War;  but  it  became  in 
some  degree  a  party  question.  Although  negro  suffrage  was  not 
incorporated  as  a  plank  in  party  platforms  and  although  the 
votes  for  and  against  it  were  not  confined  by  party  lines,  the 
agitation  in  favor  of  it,  as  the  subsequent  account  will  show,  was 
to  be  in  most  instances  more  or  less  definitely  connected  with  the 
abolitionist  and  anti-slavery  movements  and  with  the  Liberty, 
Free  Soil  and  Republican  parties.  The  records,  however,  are 
not  as  continuous  as  the  agitation  probably  was  and  hence  there 
will  be  very  appreciable  gaps  in  the  narrative. 

New  York,  Rhode  Island^  New  Jersey 

In  the  autumn  of  1838,  some  of  the  anti-slavery  men  of  the 
eighth  senatorial  district  of  New  York  questioned  Addison  Gar- 
diner, afterward  Lieutenant-Governor,  but  then  Democratic  can- 
didate for  state  senator,  concerning  his  opinions  on  various  negro 
subjects,  among  others  the  question  of  extending  the  suffrage  to 
colored  men  on  an  equality  with  whites.  In  a  letter  dated, 
Rochester,  October  16,  1838,  and  addressed  to  eight  members  of 
the  Anti-Slavery  Society  of  Genessee  County,  he  replied,  in  ef- 
fect, that  negroes  were  not  capable  of  being  good  voters,  but  that 
he  did  not  "deem  their  numbers  or  influence  in  this  State  suf- 
ficient to  justify  us  in  withholding  from  them  the  right  of  suf- 
frage.    There  should  be  no  exception  to  the  doctrine  of  equal 

[71] 


72  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSlix 

rights  without  a  strong  necessity,  and  that  necessity  I  do  not 
conceive  to  exist  in  the  present  case.  "^  When  Thomas  W.  Door 
was  trying  to  secure  extension  of  the  elective  franchise  in  Rhode 
Island  in  1841,  he  took  the  ground  that  the  suffrage  was  not  a 
privilege  but  an  inalienable  natural  right.-  Yet  the  framers  of 
the  Dorr  Constitution,  adopted  November  18,  1841,  used  the 
words,  ''Every  white  male  citizen,"  to  describe  electors,  at  the 
same  time  exempting  colored  people  from  taxation.^  This  race 
discrimination  may  have  been  due  to  the  influence  of  foreigners 
in  the  State ;  for  the  Constitution  that  actually  went  into  force, 
adopted  in  November  1842,  extended  the  suffrage  to  native  citi- 
zens who  paid  one  dollar  in  taxes  or  had  done  militia  serice,  but 
only  to  such  foreign  born  citizens  as  ov/ned  one  hundred  and 
thirty-four  dollars  worth  of  real  estate.^  The  New  Jersey  con- 
stitutional convention  of  1844  made  the  color  distinction  adopted 
by  statute  in  1807  a  part  of  the  constitution  itself.  None  of  the 
speeches  are  reported,  and  therefore,  although  the  suffrage  was 
discussed,  it  is  impossible  to  tell  whether  anything  was  said  con- 
cerning the  negroes.  The  subject  was  apparently  brought  up 
but  once,  and  then  by  a  petition  "from  sundry  colored  inhabit- 
ants, praying  to  be  admitted  to  the  right  of  suffrage. '  '^  Another 
petition  was  presented  asking  that  the  elective  franchise  be  ex- 
tended to  women."  These  somewhat  unrelated  occurances  lead 
up  to  the  consideration  of  the  New  York  Convention  of  1846. 

New^  York,  1846 

The  discriminating  clause  adopted  in  1821  had  probably  dis- 
franchised all  but  a  few  negroes.  Some  of  them  must  have  ac- 
cumulated more  or  less  property  during  the  next  generation,  and 
perhaps  the  requirement  of  a  freehold  estate  was  not  strictly 
enforced.  In  1845,  there  were  about  one  thousand  colored  vot- 
ers, while  twice  that  many  negroes  were  taxed.'^     The  anti-slav- 


^  New   York    Wcelclij   Tribune,  October   26,    1846. 

-  Richman,  I.  B.,  Rhode  Island,  p.  290. 

^  Green,  G.  W.,  A  Short  History  of  Rhode  Island,  p.  320. 

*  Ibid.,   pp.   306,    307. 

^Journal  of  Proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey  Convention  of  18U,  pp.  49-50,  63 

'Ibid.,  p.    102. 

''New  York  Convention  Report,  1846,  p.   790,  Dana. 


[72] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  73 

ery  discussions  current  at  the  time  made  it  inevitable  that  the 
question  shoukl  arise  in  the  convention:  shall  the  negro's  right 
to  vote  be  further  extended  and  made  equal  with  the  white  man 's, 
or  shall  it  be  totally  abrogated?  There  was  undoubtedly  more 
or  less  agitation  of  the  suffrage  question  during  the  election  of 
delegates  to  the  convention.  A  member  from  St.  Lawrence  said 
it  was  the  only  issue  in  that  county,  that  he  had  been  inter- 
rogated, and  had  announced  his  opposition  to  negro  suffrage.^ 
On  June  13,  1846,  the  constitutional  convention  adopted  a  resolu- 
tion ordering  the  committee  on  elective  franchise  to  inquire  into 
the  expediency  of  abolishing  the  property  qualification  for 
negroes.^  On  the  15th  of  July,  the  committee  reported  back 
an  article  which  altogether  deprived  them  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise and  confined  it  to  "white  male  citizens."  In  explanation, 
it  was  said  later  that  all  property  qualifications  were  anti-re- 
publican, and  that  negroes  ought  to  be  excluded  from  the  elect- 
orate entirely  on  account  of  their  race  or  admitted  on  an  equal- 
ity with  whites  for  the  sake  of  their  humanity."  In  support  of 
disfranchisement,  many  of  the  arguments  of  previous  discussions 
were  again  employed.  Negroes  were  of  an  inferior  race.  They 
were  under  a  curse  from  which  there  was  no  recovery.  They 
were  aliens  by  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty,  separated  from  the 
whites  not  by  petty  distinction  which  time  could  obliterate,  but 
by  the  broad  and  permanent  distinction  of  race.^^  Political 
equality  would  mean  social  equality ;  the  negroes  themselves  had 
announced  that  they  desired  equal  privileges  in  churches  and 
schools  and  with  respect  to  holding  office,  and  that  it  was  God's 
design  to  annihilate  caste  by  bringing  the  races  together  in  this 
country.^-  Even  if  the  popular  prejudice  were  mistaken  or  were 
transient,  it  should  be  taken  into  account:  "we  had  got  to  take 
notice  of  prejudices,  so  far  as  they  would  influence  the  true  or- 
ganization of  society.  "^^  Moreover  the  feeling  against  negroes 
was  founded  in  reason,  for  they  furnished  a  much  larger  pro- 
portion than  white  people  of  the  criminals  in  the  prisons  of  the 


» Ibid.,  p.   777,  Russel. 
^  IWd.,  p.   68. 

^"JbUl.,  p.  7.SM,  Kt'impcly.  p.  790,  Buri;. 

^^Ibi(J.,  p.  7Sfi.  Hunt.  p.  78!>.  Perkins,  p.  791.  HaiTison. 

^^Ibia.,  p.  785.  Kennedy,  p.  788,  Stow. 

^^  Ibid.,   pp.  787,   788,   Stow. 

[73] 


74  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

state,  and  were  in  general  more  degraded  than  the  same  class  in 
the  South/*  To  extend  suffrage  to  free  colored  persons  would 
encourage  migration  into  the  state.  The  stringent  law  of  Ohio, 
which  forbade  free  blacks  to  reside  within  the  commonwealth, 
might  be  adopted  by  Kentucky.  New  York  would  then  become 
a  reservoir  into  which  other  states  could  pour  this  undesirable 
class,  and  an  avalanche  of  men  raised  in  bondage  would  tell  the 
people  of  New  York  how  to  conduct  a  free  government.  The 
result  would  be  to  lower  the  position  of  the  working  people  by 
bringing  them  into  contact  with  a  degraded  race."  Suffrage 
was  a  privilege,  not  a  right,  and  black  men  ought  to  claim  it  as 
an  inalienable  natural  right  no  more  than  women  and  children. 
Negroes  were  not  bona  fide  citizens.  The  whites  had  formed 
themselves,  or  were  formed  by  the  operation  of  circumstances 
and  the  law  of  necessity,  into  a  distinct  nation,  and  they  had  a 
right  to  exclude  negroes  if  they  desired.  Negroes  also  had  a 
right  to  migrate  from  the  country  and  set  a  government  of  their 
own.  Their  destiny,  far  from  ignoble,  was  to  return  to  Africa, 
and  to  teach  the  dusky,  naked  savages  and  idolators  there,  the 
arts  and  learning  of  a  superior  race.^*^  One  member,  a  native 
of  Baltimore,  Maryland,  agreed  with  Thomas  Jefferson  that 
negroes  were  capable  of  much  improvement.  He  denied,  how- 
ever, that  suffrage  would  benefit  them,  and  he  made  a  significant 
charge  against  the  abolitionists,  who  extended  their  sympathies 
to  the  extreme  link  of  humanity  because  it  was  the  extreme  link 
of  humanity.  In  IMaryland,  the  anti-slavery  cause  was  making 
rapid  progress,  he  said,  until  Northern  fanatics  interfered :  ' '  On 
that  day,  anti-slavery  was  left  dead  upon  the  field,  and  the 
loosened  fetters  of  the  slave  were  replaced  with  double  rivets. — 
The  destruction  of  active  efforts  of  anti-slavery  in  the  South, 
is  the  only  victory  I  have  ever  known  abolitionism  to  gain. '  '^^ 

The  champions  of  equal  rights  denied  that  slaveholders  had 
ever  been  on  the  point  of  manumitting  their  slaves. ^^  Anyone, 
said  one  of  them,  wiio  voted  to  deprive  black  men  of  their  poli- 


^*lbia.,  pp.   784,   785,   Kennedy. 

^5/ftirf,  p.   788,   Stow. 

^«  Ibid.,  p.  777,  Riissel,  p.  783.  Kennedy,  pp.  186,   787;  Stow. 

"Ibid.,  pp    784,  785,  Kennedy. 

"iMtf.,  p.  786,  A.   W.  Young. 

[74] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  75 

tical  rights  was  a  friend  of  slavery.^'^  Negroes  were  not  natur- 
ally inferior  to  whites.  Color  was  merely  an  incident  of  lati- 
tude. De  Witt  Clinton  had  favored  amalgamation  to  improve 
the  species.  Africans  were  fully  as  intelligent  as  immigrants 
from  Europe,  and  it  did  not  become  a  man  of  sense,  to  infer 
that,  because  of  a  black  skin  and  curly  hair,  the  negroes  were 
not  endowed  with  minds  equal  to  those  of  any  other  race  or  na- 
tion.-'^  Over  and  over  again,  members  urged  that  they  were 
men.  and,  according  to  the  great  Declaration,  entitled  to  equal 
rights,  and  not  justly  to  be  governed  without  their  own  con- 
sent.-^ Although  it  was  said  that  negroes  could  legally  sit  on 
juries,  and  although  an  instance  was  given  of  a  negro  who 
served  as  juryman  in  Buffalo,  it  was  admitted  that  a  great  prej- 
udice against  them  prevailed.  In  New  York,  they  were  not 
even  permitted  to  drive  a  cart.  They  were  so  greatly  oppressed 
and  degraded  as  to  make  it  a  wonder  that  criminals  among 
them  were  not  much  more  numerous.--  White  women  and 
children  were  protected  by  the  men ;  but  no  one  would  stand  up 
for  the  colored  race,  who  therefore  needed  the  suffrage  as  a 
means  of  protection.-^  The  word  "white"  was  too  indefinite 
and  might  cause  hardship.-*  There  was  no  danger  that  negroes 
would  become  too  numerous,  for  they  were  already  being  whiten- 
ed out  of  existence  by  amalgamation,-^  and  the  experience  of 
New  England  showed  that  there  was  no  danger  of  an  influx 
from  other  states.-" 

The  votes  in  the  convention  show  little  change  of  sentiment 
since  1821.  On  striking  out  the  word  "white"  and  permitting 
negroes  to  vote  under  the  same  restrictions  as  other  citizens, 
there  were  37  ayes  and  63  noes.-'  There  were  42  ayes  and  50 
noes  on  a  motion  to  reduce  the  property  qualification  from  $250  to 
$100.-*     A  motion  to  retain  qualified  suffrage  provision  of  the 


1"  Ibid.,  p.  TOO,   Simmons 

="  7hi<t.,  p.    7S(i,   Younsr.   Watcrbury.   p.    789.    Simmons,   p.    S20.   Bruce. 

-1  Ibid.,  p.  77(5,  Bnice  and  olhers,  p.  78.".. 

=2  Ibid.,  p.   777.   t^tvong.   p.  785,   Dana.   p.   780.   Rhoades. 

■"^lUd.,  p.   786,   Waterbury. 

'^  Ibid.,  p.  776,  Burr. 

"-'Ibid.,  p.   776.  Burr. 

"'Ibid.,   p.    788. 

'''Ibid.,  p.   788. 

as  Ibid.,  p.   790. 

[75] 


76  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

old  constitution  was  adopted  by  63  to  32,-*'  and  a  subsequent 
proposition  to  remove  all  restrictions  on  the  right  of  colored 
persons  to  vote  was  defeated  by  75  to  29.""  An  attempt  to  in- 
troduce an  educational  qualification  was  laughed  at,^^  but  it  was 
decided  by  a  vote  of  73  to  26  on  October  2,  1846,  to  submit  to 
-the  people,  at  the  fall  election,  the  question  of  equal  suffrage 
to  colored  persons.'^ 

This  question  was  directly  at  issue  in  the  convention  only  on 
the  motion  to  remove  all  restrictions  that  did  not  apply  equally 
to  w^hites,  which  received  29  votes  in  its  favor.  Fourteen  of 
these  were  cast  by  natives  of  New  England  states,  of  whom 
there  were  forty  in  a  convention  of  one  hundred  and  twenty-six 
members.  The  New  Englanders  therefore  comprised  a  little  less 
than  one-third  of  the  convention  but  gave  about  one  half  the 
votes  for  negro  suffrage.  jMost  of  the  votes  on  that  side  came 
from  the  North  and  especially  from  the  West.  A  decided  change 
from  the  situation  in  1821,  when  no  geographical  grouping  of 
votes  could  be  noticed,  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  city 
of  New  York,  then  about  equally  divided,  now  cast  fifteen  of  its 
sixteen  votes  against  extension  of  negro  privileges. 

The  vote  of  New  York  City  may  have  been  due  to  the  influence 
of  foreigners  in  politics.  Or,  perhaps  it  was  due  to  the  fervor  of 
the  Democrats,  who  controlled  the  convention,  and  whom  ardent 
anti-slavery  men  held  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  negro  suf- 
frage.^^  The  Tribune  complained,  in  an  editorial  headed,  "The 
Elective  Franchise — Dough  Face  Stock  Rising,"  that  the  negro 
question  had  been  postponed  and  was  later  "to  be  crowded 
through  in  the  most  hasty  manner,  and  so  as  to  serve  the  peculiar 
interests  of  the  South."  A  member  of  the  committee  that  re- 
ported the  first  disfranchising  article  had  been  made  a  revenue 
official  at  New  York.  "Had  he  left  out  the  word  white,"  asks 
the  Tribune,  "would  he  have  gotten  that  berth  from  a  President 
who  wars  against  ]\Iexico  to  restore  negro  slavery  where  it  had 
been  abolished?"^*     This  paper  urged  the  friends  of  equal  suf- 


-^  ima.,  p.  791. 

"0  Ibid.,   p.    820 

3'  Ibid.,  p.  820. 

''-Ibid.,    p.    824. 

33  New  York  Weellij  Tribune.  October  10,  1S46 

="  Ibid. 

[76] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  77 

frage  to  bring  out  the  largest  possible  vote  in  its  favor,  exhorted 
"every  true    Republican,   every   just   man.... every   man   who 
reveres  God  and  loves  rightousness"  to  do  his  utmost  '"to  render 
this    instalment  of  justice    to  the  long    suffering    children  of 
Africa,"  ridiculed  "the  exaction  of  dirt  as  a  rec^uisite  to  con- 
stitute a  man  a  voter,"  applied  to  the  question  of  equal  suffrage 
the  test  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  decided  that 
longer  disfranchisement  of  colored  men  would  be  "an  outrage 
and  a  shame.  ""'^     After  the  election  of  November  3,  the  Tribune 
charged  that  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  at  many  voting  places, 
Tammany  made  it  difficult  or  im^possible  to  secure  a  ballot  for 
the  constitution  or  for  equal  suffrage.^*'     The  defeat  of  the  prop- 
osition to  abolish  the  property  qualification  for  blacks  and  put 
them  on  an  equality  with  whites  was  however  too  decisive  to  be 
questioned.    The  vote  stood  22-1,336  to  85,406.'^^    Several  counties 
in  the  North  and  West  gave  majorities  in  favor  of  negro  suf- 
frage ;  Clinton,  Franklin,  Washington,  Essex,  Cattaraugus,  Wyo- 
ming, Cortland,  Oswego  and  i\Iadison.     The  same  counties  gave 
heavy  votes  for  Van  Buron  when  he  was  Free  Soil  candidate  for 
president  in  1848,'®  but  his  total  vote  was  larger  by  half  than 
that  in  favor  of  tlie  negro  in  1846,  as  one  would  expect  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  suffrage  question  brought  out  only  about 
two-thirds  of  the  normal  vote  of  the  State.     That  one  fifth  of 
the  voters  of  this  commonwealth,  twenty  years  before  the  re- 
construction period,  should  have  been  desirous  of  putting  negroes 
on  an  equality  with  white  men  at  the  polls,  is  evidently  of  no 
■small  significance  in  accounting  for  the  triumph  of  radical  pol- 
icies in  dealing  with  the  negro  problem  in  the  South.     Nor  was 
New  York  the  only  eastern  state  to  deal  with  the  question.     The 
next  year,  1847,  the  anti-slavery  agitators  in  Connecticut  evi- 
dently secured  a  legislative  enactment  submitting  the  negro  suf- 
frage issue  to  popular  vote,  although  the  legislature  refused  to 
endorse  the  striking  out  of  the  word  "white"  from  the  consti- 
tution.^^    Connecticut   was   to   give   Van   Buren   five   thousand 


■"^IbUt.,  October  10,  24,  :il. 
■^^Jbift.,   Novembpr    14. 

^' Tribuvc  Aliiwriac.   1S7".  p.   ">."  :  Appleton's  Annual  CitclnpcdUi,  18G0.   p.  490; 
also  Niles,  Register,  LXXI.,   p.    198,   Nov.   28,    1846. 
'^^Whig  Almanac,  1849,  p.  54. 
M  Niles'  Register,  LXXII.,  p.   227,   June   12,   1847. 

[77] 


78^  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

votes  in  a  total  of  sixty-two  thousand  in  18-18,^"  but  in  1847,  on 
the  negro  suffrage  question,  only  about  a  third  of  the  vote  of 
the  state  was  called  out,  and  the  proposed  extension  of  the  fran- 
chise was  defeated  by  19,495  to  5,616.^^ 


*o  Whig  Almanac,  1849.,  p.  64. 

"  Niles"  Kegisicf,  LXXII,   p.   148,   Nov.  6,    1847;   .Vpploton's  Annual   divloprie- 
ma.     18B!',   p.   205. 


[78] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  79 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  STRUGGLE  IN  THE  NORTHWEST,  1844-1857 

The  most  notable  efforts,  however,  to  secure  negro  suffrage 
during  the  forties  and  fifties  were  made  in  the  Northwest.  In 
all  the  states  carved  out  of  the  Northwest  Territory  and  in  Iowa 
and  Minnesota,  the  question  was  to  be  agitated  at  various  times 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil  War. 

The  first  constitutional  convention  of  Iowa  sat  during  the 
month  of  October  18-4-1.  Composed  of  72  members,  19  natives  of 
New^  York  and  New  England,  26  natives  of  slave  states,  and  the 
rest  natives  of  the  other  state's  and  foreign  countries,^  the  great 
majority  of  the  convention  represented  strong  prejudices  against 
black  men.  One  member  offered  a  resolution  that  petitions  for 
negro  suffrage  should  never  be  entertained  by  the  Legislature, 
and  complained  that,  under  the  Territorial  government,  the 
practice  of  sending  negro  petitions  had  become  a  nuisance.' 
Another  member,  a  native  of  New  York,  representing  the  Du- 
buque district  asserted  that  his  constituents  had  instructed  Mm 
to  get  a  provision  put  in  the  constitution  which  would  keep 
negroes  out  of  the  state,  that  their  attitude  was:  "Slave  or  no 
negro,"  and  that  if  their  wishes  were  not  carried  out,  Iowa 
would  be  overrun  by  broken  down  slaves  from  JMissouri.^  In 
accordance  w^ith  these  views,  the  convention  adopted,  by  a  vote 
of  32  to  21,  a  section  which  made  it  the  duty  of  the  legislature, 
as  soon  as  practicable,  to  pass  laws  to  prevent  the  settlement  of 
colored  people  in  the  state.*     Eleven  days  later,  however,  this 

1  Virginia  n,  No.  Carolina  6,  Kentucky  8,  Tennessee  1,  New  York  9,  Ver- 
mont f),  Massachusetts  1,  Connecticut  1,  New  Hampshire  1,  Maine  1,  Pennsyl- 
vania 13,  Illinois  1,  Indiana  1,  Ohio  8,  New  Jersey  1,  Scotland  1,  Ireland  1, 
Germany  1  ;  Shamhaugh,  P..  F..  Editor,  Fragment  of  the  Debates  of  the  Iowa 
constitutional  Conventions  of  ISl,',  and  IS'iG,  etc.,  pp.  408,  409,  410. 

'ma.,  p.   123. 

^  itia.,  p.  lo.j. 

*  tOia..  p.  66. 

[79] 


80  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

provision  was  stricken  out,  by  a  vote  of  35  to  32,  because  it  was 
feared  that  it  would  run  counter  to  the  Federal  constitution  and 
that  it  would  make  more  uncertain  the  admission  of  Iowa  into 
the  Union." 

Several  petitions  were  presented  which  asked  that  persons  of 
color  be  permitted  to  vote.  One  of  them  was  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee which  reported,  without  other  discussion,  against  grant- 
ing the  request.''  When  another  was  presented,  and  motion  to 
lay  it  on  the  table  and  to  refer  it  to  the  committee  on  suffrage 
and  citizenship  had  been  lost,  ]\Ir.  Hall,  who  made  the  adverse 
report  on  the  former  petition,  moved  that  it  be  referred  to  a 
select  committee  of  thirteen.  One  member  opposed  this  motion 
because  he  feared  to  send  abroad  a  report  that  would  agitate 
the  country  and  produce  excitement  and  heated  discussion.  There 
were,  however,  several  who,  denying  that  they  were  abolitionists 
and  admitting  that  the  prayer  of  the  petitioners  ought  not  to  be 
granted,  argued  that  the  Abolitionists,  though  small  in  numbers, 
had  a  right  to  be  heard,  that  the  citizens  who  favored  negro  suf- 
frage were  "as  worthy  as  any  others,"  and  that  their  requests 
should  be  met  with  reason  and  with  candor.  Mr.  Kail's  motion, 
therefore,  prevailed.^  The  arguments  which  the  committee  ad- 
vanced in  their  report,  show  how  much  the  political  thinking  of 
that  time  was  charged  with  the  principles  of  Jefferson,  and  how 
necessary  it  was  considered  to  reconcile  political  action  with  the 
theories  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  ''That  all  men  are 
created  equal,  and  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  equal  un- 
alienable rights,  your  committee  are  free  to  admit;  that,  so  far 
as  nature  is  concerned,  those  rights  are  as  sacred  to  the  black 
man  as  the  white  man,  and  should  be  so  regarded.  This,  how- 
ever, is  a  mere  abstract  proposition,  and  although  strictly  true, 
when  applied  to  man  in  a  state  of  nature,  yet  it  becomes  very 
much  modified  when  man  is  considered  in  an  artificial  state  in 
which  government  places  him."  Women  and  children  are  not 
permitted  to  vote.  They  "are  denied  what  we  abstractly  term 
inalienable  rights." — "The  negro  is  surely  no  better  than  our 
wives  and  children."     It  is  erroneous  to  confuse  natural  with 


^IDia.,  pp.    155,   156. 
'  IMd.,   pp.    3  0,    IT. 
'Ibid.,  pp.  26,   27,  28,   29. 


[80] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  81 

artificial  rights  or  to  treat  "the  artificial  institution  of  govern- 
ment as  sacred  and  unalienable  to  man  as  the  abstract  rights  of 
nature."  Government  is  strictly  conventional.  "It  is  made  tor 
those  who  are  to  be  benefited  by  it,  and  is  not  bound  to  unbar  its 
doore  and  receive  every  vagrant  who  may  take  refuge  in  it. — 
In  forming  or  maintaining  a  government,  it  is  the  privilege  and 
duty  of  those  who  have  or  are  about  to  associate  together  for 
that  purpose,  to  modify  and  limit  the  rights  of,  or  wholly  ex- 
clude from  the  association,  any  and  every  species  of  persons  who 
would  endanger  or  lessen,  or  in  the  least  impair  the  enjoyment  of 
these  rights. — It  is  the  party  to  the  compact  that  should  com- 
plain, not  the  stranger. — True,  these  persons  may  be  unfortu- 
nate, but  the  government  is  not  unjust. — 'It  is  the  luhite  popula- 
tion who  are  about  to  form  a  government  for  themselves.  No 
negro  is  represented  in  this  convention,  and  no  one  proposes  to 
become  a  member  of  the  compact. — The  negro  not  being  a  party 
to  the  government  has  no  right  to  partake  of  its  privileges."  It 
would  be  dangerous  to  encourage  their  migration  into  the  state : 
"The  policy  of  other  states  would  drive  the  whole  black  popu- 
lation of  the  Union  upon  us.  The  ballot  box  would  fall  into 
their  hands. — There  are  strong  reasons  to  induce  the  belief  that 
the  two  races  could  not  exist  in  the  same  government  upon  an 
equality  without  discord  and  violence  that  might  eventuate  in 
insurrection,  bloodshed,  and  final  extermination  of  one  of  the 
two  races.  No  one  can  doubt  that  a  degrading  prostitution  of 
moral  feeling  would  ensue ;  a  tendency  to  amalgamate  the  two 
races  would  be  superinduced ;  a  degraded  and  reckless  popula- 
tion would  follow ,  idleness  crime  and  misery  would  come  in 
their  train ;  and  government  itself  fall  into  anarchy  or  des- 
potism."^ 

The  constitution  proposed  in  1844  was  rejected,  and  there 
was  chosen  another  convention  which  met  in  1846.  In  the  frag- 
mentary records  of  its  proceedings  now  available,  no  reference 
to  negro  suffrage  can  be  found.  But  it  is  improbable  that  any 
stronger  sentiment  favorable  to  negroes  was  exhibited  than  in 
1844,  for  of  the  32  members,  ten  Whigs  and  twenty-two  Demo- 


«  Joica  Consiititlional  Dehaie^.  IS'tl,  11.,  pp.  6.50,  651.  The  report  was  quoted 
in  full  by  the  minority  of  a  comniittee  of  the  convention  of  1857.  Shambaugh, 
B.  F.,  Historii  of  the  Constitutions  of  Iowa.  pp.  213,  218. 

[81] 


82  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

crats,  who  composed  the  convention  15  were  natives  of  slave 
States.*^  Iowa  was  yet  to  become  the  most  radical  on  negro 
questions  of  all  the  states  east  of  New  England,  but  at  this  time 
there  was  probably  less  of  liberal  feeling  toward  colored  people 
than  in  the  neighboring  Territory  of  Wisconsin. 

Wisconsin,  1846  to  1848 

The  negro  suffrage  question  had  already  been  agitated  there. 
In  January  1844,  six  colored  men  petitioned  the  Legislature  to 
extend  the  suffrage  to  all  persons  holding  real  estate,  or  one 
hundred  dollars  worth  of  taxable  property.  This  petition  was 
referred  to  a  select  committee  of  the  council  but  no  favorable 
action  was  taken.  In  the  House,  where  similar  petitions  were 
l^resented,  the  judiciary  committee  reported  that  it  was  inexpedi- 
ent to  meddle  with  the  question.^**  But  it  could  not  be  kept 
down.  The  constitutional  convention  which  met  at  Madison, 
October  5,  1846,  received  several  petitions  of  the  same  nature, 
one  of  them  asking  for  the  removal  of  all  distinctions  on  account 
of  color,  sex  or  nation.^^  The  debates  of  that  body  show  that 
previous  discussion  of  the  question  had  been  considerable,  that 
it  was  pressed  chiefly  by  the  abolitionists  and  their  sympathizers, 
and  that  politicians  had  already  clearly  recognized  that  the 
people  of  the  western  part  of  the  territory  were  almost  unani- 
mously opposed  to  negro  voting  and  that  many  in  the  eastern 
counties  were  strongly  in  favor  of  it.  During  the  legislative 
session  in  the  first  months  of  1846,  Marshall  M.  Strong  of  Wau- 
kesha had  spoken  vigorously  in  favor  of  impartial  suffrage ;  the 
abolitionists  of  that  county  congratulated  themselves  on  a  new 
acquisition  and  passed  resolutions  commending  his  attitude ;  but 
in  the  constitutional  convention  he  expressly  repudiated  his 
former  views  and  argued  on  the  other  side.^-     It  was  charged 


"  Shambaugh.  Fragments,  etc.,  pp.  414,  415.  Virginia  4,  Kentucky  6,  North 
Carolina  ;>,  Alabama  1.  Maryland  3,  New  York  ?,,  Connecticut  4,  Vermont  4, 
Pennsylvania  2,    Ohio.   4. 

'^''Council  Jour.,  Wis.  Terr.  Legis..  1844-4."),  p.  230;  House  Jour.,  184.3-44,  pp. 
167,  336.  Baker,  F.  E  ,  A  Brief  History  of  the  Elective  Franchise  in  Wisconsin. 
State  Hist.  Soc.  of  Wis..  Proc,  1893.  p.  4. 

"  Journal  of  the  Convention  of  1S1,6,  pp.  82,  237 ;  Madison  Express,  Nov.  3, 
3  846. 

"Madison  Express,  Oct.  27,  1846,  notice  of  Strong's  speech  and  editorial, 
"Crawfishing." 

[82] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  8S 

that  others  had  likewise  changed  their  position,  that  six,  out  of 
eleven  Waukesha  delegates,  had  voted  against  negro  suffrage 
against  the  known  will  of  a  majority  of  their  constituents.^-^  One 
member  maintained  that  every  delegate  was  pledged  on  the  ques- 
tion, and  that  a  great  many  members  from  the  eastern  counties 
could  not  have  been  elected  if  it  had  not  been  known  that  they 
were  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage.^*  Several  members  of  the  con- 
vention, in  speaking  on  the  side  of  the  colored  people,  felt  it 
necessary  to  deny  that  they  were  Abolitionists  or  connected  with 
the  Abolitionist  party/^  Nevertheless,  the  opponents  of  negro 
suffrage  identified  it  with  that  party,  and  Moses  jM.  Strong  in 
his  speech  on  the  question  "came  down — like  a  perfect  ava- 
lanche" upon  the  anti-slavery  enthusiasts  and  declared  for  "war 
to  the  knife  and  knife  to  the  hilt."^*'  The  same  speaker  said 
that  unless  negroes  were  refused  the  ballot,  the  constitution 
would  not  receive  fifty  votes  west  of  Rock  River,  for  the  inhabi- 
tants of  that  region  would  consider  it  an  infringement  on  their 
natural  rights  to  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  negroes.  Mr. 
Gibson  replied  that  the  North  and  East  as  strenuously  advocated 
giving  black  men  the  right  to  vote  as  the  West  opposed  it ;  that 
this  feeling  was  increasing  daily  and  would  continue  to  increase 
as  long  as  the  question  might  be  agitated."  The  next  day  a 
motion  to  submit  the  question  separately  to  the  people,  was  op- 
posed on  the  ground  that  the  West  feared,  mistakably  indeed, 
that  the  East  intended  to  force  negro  equality  upon  them  and 
would,  therefore,  vote  down  the  entire  constitution ;  they  could  not 
be  convinced  that  most  of  the  people  in  the  East  were  "sound" 
on  this  matter,  for  the  debates  in  the  legislature  had  made  it 
appear  that  negro  suffrage  was  the  settled  policy  of  the  eastern 
counties.^^  The  debate  on  striking  out  the  word  "white"  from 
the  suffrage  article  took  place  October  21,  and  next  day  the' 
discussion  turned  on  the  proposition  to  take  a  separate  vote  on; 


^^  Ibid. 

"  Ibid.,  Speech  of  Mr.  Burchard ;  also  Wisconsin  Arrjiis,  Madison,  Oct.  27,  1846, 
^^  Madison    Express.    Oct.    27,    184(i.    Warren     Chase,     .Judd ;     also     communi- 
cation by  an  "Inquirer"  in  issue  of  Nov.   10. 
'«7Md.,    Oct.    27. 

^^  Wisconsin  Arfjus,  Oct.  27,  1846.     Speeches  of  Bevans,    Burnett,    and   Moses. 
M.    Strong. 


[83] 


84  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

the  question  of  colored  suffrage.  As  was  to  be  expected,  the 
friends  of  the  negroes  based  their  arguments  on  the  principles 
of  equality,  of  democracy,  of  the  natural  rights  of  man,  and 
of  the  injustice  of  taxation  without  representation;  and  then 
half  gave  away  their  case  by  carefully  proving  that  granting 
the  elective  franchise  would  not  encourage  negro  immigration. 
The  negroes,  said  Mr.  Judd,  had  been  brought  up  here  and 
knew  only  our  laws,  country  and  language,  and  must  be  regarded 
as  citizens.  Mr.  Burchard  admitted  that  Africans  were  degraded 
and  borne  down  by  the  general  prejudice  against  them  and  that 
social  equality  was  impossible.  But  the  removal  of  the  color 
discrimination  would  be  in  accord  with  the  principle  that 
"all  men  are  born  free  and  equal."  Negroes  had  rights  and 
needed  the  ballot  to  protect  them.  "Is  it  not  wrong  to  deprive 
the  negro  of  the  right  to  vote  and  then  as  an  equivalent  tender 
to  him  exemption  of  his  property  from  taxation?  We  live 
*  *  *  in  an  age  of  progressive  democracy.  *  '*  *  Until 
you  can  prove  that  it  is  a  crime  to  be  born  with  a  colored  skin, 
I  appeal  to  your  justice,  to  your  humanity,  to  let  this  provision 
mark  the  progress  of  liberal  views.  "^'^  About  a  dozen  others 
were  on  the  same  side,  actuated  not  only  by  their  theoretical 
democracy,  but  also,  as  Mr.  Gibson  avowed,  by  the  desire  to 
strike  at  the  institution  of  slavery.  On  the  other  side,  also, 
familiar  arguments  were  used.  The  right  to  vote  was  not  a 
natural  right  but  a  franchise  bestowed  or  withheld  as  the  public 
good  demanded.  There  were  only  a  few  in  the  state,  and  it 
was  therefore  useless  to  agitate  a  mere  abstraction.  Negroes 
were  too  servile  and  despised  ever  to  be  put  on  an  equality  with 
white  men,  but  giving  them  the  suffrage  would  tend  to  promote 
intermarriage  and  amalgamation.  Mr.  Ryan,  who  many  years 
later  as  chief-justice  proved  himself  the  greatest  jurist  of  "Wis- 
consin, feared  that  the  state  would  be  overrun  by  fugitive  slaves 
who  then  made  Canada  their  destination.  He  was  in  favor  of 
ameliorating  the  conditions  of  the  negroes  and  thought  the 
plan  of  colonization  was  the  most  practicable  means;  but  social 
equality  w^as  impossible.     He  said  that  in  New  York  City  every 


"Burchard's  speech   is  printed,  evidently  from  a  manuscript,   In  the  Madison 
Express,   Oct.   27,    1S4G. 


[84] 


OLBRlCri— XEGRO    SUFFRAGE  85 

negro  was  a  thief  and  every  negro  woman  worse,  and  asserted 
that  it  was  wrong  to  mingle  races  on  whom  God  had  put  an 
insuperable  mark  of  separation. -°  On  the  26th,  "W.  H.  Clark 
made  a  similar  argument  and  confirmed  his  reasoning  by  quot- 
ing from  the  speech  of  IMcQueen  in  the  North  Carolina  conven- 
tion of  1835.-^  He  apparently  agreed  witii  some  negro  cham- 
pions that  the  ancient  Egyptians  were  negroes,  but  the  blacks 
had  never  had  energj^  enough  to  assert  their  freedom,  had  not 
shown  themselves  safe  depositories  of  political  power,  and  even 
in  ancient  Egypt  when  they  had  cradled  the  arts  and  sciences, 
had  been  merely  enlightened  slaves.  The  pyramids,  he  said, 
were  "everlasting  mementoes  of  the  abject  despotism  which 
forced  unwilling  hands  to  pile  those  masses  to  the  clouds.  "-- 

The  suffrage  article  had  been  reported  to  the  convention  with 
the  usual  race  discrimination,  and  the  motion  to  strike  out 
"white"  was  defeated,  after  the  debate  of  Oct.  21,  by  a  vote  of 
91  to  12.-^  The  proposition  to  submit  the  question  to  the  test 
of  popular  judgment  was  to  be  more  successful.  It  was  defend- 
ed, on  the  ground  that  it  vrould  allay  agitation  l)y  destroying  the 
ground  on  whieli  the  radical  anti-slavery  men  stood,  and  'that 
it  was  in  accord  with  democratic  principles;  and  denounced,  as 
a  firebrand  to  be  thrown  into  the  whole  West,  merely  to  gratify 
a  handful  of  violent  abolitionists.  ]\Iany  of  the  eastern  members 
were  no  doubt  influenced  by  the  attitude  of  their  constituents 
and  dared  not  attempt  to  stifle  agitation,  and  probably  they 
also  feared  that  the  abolitionist  vote  would  be  cast  against  the 
constitution  unless  an  opportunity  should  be  given  to  vote 
directly  on  the  negro  suffrage  issue.  Accordingly,  after  the 
amendment  providing  for  separate  submission  had  been  twice 
defeated,-*  it  was  finally  passed  by  a  vote  of  55  to  48.=^ 

The  suffrage  question  was  not  prominent  among  those  discussed 


^  Ante,  p.  45. 

22  Madison  Express.  Nov.  3,   1846. 

-^Journal  of  the  Convenfion  of  IS^G.  pp.  29,  67,  91,  94.  The  twelve  were: 
Atwood,  Burcharcl,  Warren,  Chase,  Doty,  Gibson,  Giddings,  Goodell,  Hun- 
kins,   Moore.   Randall,    Tweedy. 

^Madison  Express,  Oct.  27.   1846. 

■°  Von.  Jounial,  pp.  .324,  35">.  For  fracmontary  reports  of  speeches,  see 
Maaison  Express,  for  Oct.  27.  and  Nov.  3:  TVisconsin  Argus,  for  Oct.  27, 
1846;  Wisconsin  Democrat,  Saturdav.  October  24,   1846. 

[85] 


86  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

by  the  press,  and  the  vote  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  April  1847, 
indicates  that  little  public  attention  was  drawn  to  it.  On  March 
30,  the  Madison  Express  published  a  letter  from  a  New  York 
correspondent  of  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  in  which  it  was  charged 
that  the  convention  had  combined  the  question  of  the  right  to 
hold  office  with  the  suffrage  proposition,  in  order  to  insure  its 
defeat.  No  other  reference  to  the  subject  appeared  in  this  paper 
during  several  weeks  before  and  after  the  vote  was  taken.  The 
constitution  was  defeated  by  20,232  to  14,119  and  the  negro 
suffrage  clause  by  14,615  to  7,564.-*^  The  southwestern  counties 
of  the  territory,  where  many  southern  people  had  settled,  gave 
very  large  majorities  against  the  proposition  to  let  black  men 
vote.  The  Germans  along  Lake  Michigan,  whether  because  an 
attempt  had  been  made  in  the  convention  to  couple  the  vote  on 
foreign  suffrage  with  that  on  negro  suffrage,  or  because  foreign- 
ers had  a  natural  antipathy  to  colored  men,  voted  the  same  way. 
Still,  nearly  half  the  votes  on  the  question  in  Rock  county,  and 
a  majority  of  the  votes  on  this  issue,  in  Racine,  Walworth,  Wau- 
kesha, Jefferson,  Dodge,  Fond  du  Lac,  and  Winnebago  counties, 
were  cast  on  the  side  of  equal  rights.  These  counties,  w^hicli 
constituted  a  solid  strip  north  and  south  across  the  eastern  part 
of  the  area  then  settled,  had  been  occupied  largely  by  New  Eng- 
landers,  and  the  votes  which  they  gave  on  this  question  fur- 
nish a  slight  intimation  of  how  potent  was  to  be  the  influence 
of  New  England  in  the  anti-slavery  movement  and  the  strug- 
gle for  negro  rights  and  privileges.-' 

The  defeat  of  the  first  constitution  led  to  the  election  of 
another  convention,  which  met  at  ]).Iadison,  December  15,  1847, 
for  the  purpose  of  drawing  up  another  instrument  more  likely 
to  meet  the  approval  of  the  people.  A  large  majority  of  the 
sixty-nine  members  were  natives  of  New  York  and  New  Eng- 
land.-^    The  vote  of  December  31,  on  the  motion  of  ]\Ir.  Chase, 


=«  Baker.  F.  E.,  op.  clt..  p.  8 ;  Gi-efrory,  J-  O.,  tJegro  Suffrage  in  Wisconsin, 
Trans.  Wis.  Acad,  of  Sciences,  Arts  and  Letters,  vol.  XI..  p.  94. 

-'  Baker,  F.  E.,  op.  cit.,  pp.  8,  9,  10 :  Geer,  E.  M.,  The  Louisiana  Purchase, 
Vol.  VIII.  of  the  History  of  North  America,  edited  by  G.  C.  Lee.  pp.  306  to  309. 

=s  ]vie^  York  25,  Connecticut  9,  New  Hampshire  3,  Vermont  7,  Massachusetts 
G,  Maine  1,  Pennsylvania  2,  New  Jersey  1,  Ohio  1,  Northwest  Territory  1, 
Maryland  1,  Virginia  1,  Kentucky  4,  Ireland  5,  Bavaria  1,  Norway  1,  Journal 
0}  the  convention  of  lS'i7  iS,  with  a  Sketch  of  Debates. 

[86] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  87 

^'a  sterling  old  school  Democrat,"-''  on  striking  out  the  word 
''white"  was  45  to  22  against  removing  the  discrimination.  The 
twenty-two  who  favored  negro  suffrage  comprised  twenty  New 
Yorkers  and  New  Englanders,  a  Kentuckian  and  an  Irishman. "° 
On  the  following  day  Experience  Estabrook  of  Walworth 
county  moved  to  grant  the  elective  franchise  to  everyone 
already  in  the  territory,  and  to  provide  for  legal  regulations 
in  the  ease  of  those  who  should  come  in  the  future.-^  His 
proposition  seems  to  have  been  ignored,  but  on  January  3,  1848, 
he  offered  an  amendment  to  the  suffrage  article,  providing  "that 
the  legislature  shall  at  any  time  have  the  power  to  admit  col- 
ored persons  to  the  right  of  suffrage  on  such  terms  and  under 
such  restrictions  as  may  be  determined  by  law,"  which  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  35  to  34.^-  After  some  discussion,  it  was 
reconsidered  and  was  rejected  by  the  same  close  vote.  On  the 
next  day,  however,  it  was  adopted  with  the  further  provision 
that  no  such  law  should  be  valid  unless  ratified  at  a  general 
election  by  "a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  at  such  election. "^^ 
The  records  of  speeches  in  this  convention  help  reveal  the 
points  of  view  from  which  the  negro  suffrage  question  was 
regarded.  Those  who  opposed  giving  the  Legislature  any  power 
to  bring  up  the  subject  in  the  future  declared  that  it  had  been 
settled  at  the  spring  election,  that  there  was  already  too  much 
feeling  on  negro  questions,  and  that  the  proposed  clause  would 
become  a  source  of  perpetual  agitation,  discord  and  strife.'^* 
The  other  side  argued  that  a  considerable  minority,  "respectable 
in  numbers  and  respectable  in  intelligence,"  favored  negro 
suffrage  and  had  a  right  to  show  their  strength  at  the  ballot 
box.  Seven  years  before,  said  Mr.  Estabrook,  it  would  not 
have  been  possible  to  muster  a  corporal's  guard  who  would  have 
been  willing  to  let  colored  men  vote ;  but  public  opinion  had 
made  such  rapid  progress  that,  in  the  preceding  spring  election, 
several  counties  gave  majorities  for  equal  suffrage.  If  the 
time  should  come  when  a  majority  should  favor  abrogating  the 


-9  Gregory,  op.  cit.,  p.  96 
^  Journal,  etc.,  p.  145. 
"^IJnn.,    p.    130. 
'^IMd.,  p.   180. 


XU%U.,     p.     J.OU. 

IMd.,  pp.  185,  192,  193. 

ITiid.,  pp.  181,  103,  Rountree,  p.  1S4.  Kilbourn,  p.  192  Prentiss. 

[87] 


88  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

color  distinction,  they  ought  not  to  be  bound  hand  and  foot 
by  constitutional  prohibitions.^'  Mr.  Jackson,  who  had  voted 
to  expunge  the  word  "white",  complained  that  some  were  accus- 
tomed to  charge  abolitionism  against  those  who  favored  colored 
suffrage ;  but,  he  and  others  explained,  there  were  many  besides 
abolitionists  who  believed  that  giving  blacks  the  elective  fran- 
chise was  right  in  principle.^*'  Mr.  Estabrook  said  that  "fat, 
sleek-headed  democracy"  revolted  at  the  bare  mention  of  the 
word  "negro";  but  he  expressed  the  opinion  that  large  num- 
bers of  Democrats  in  Walworth  county  favored  negro  suffrage. 
He  said  also  that  the  Whig  convention  of  that  county  in  the 
fall  of  1846  had  adopted  a  resolution  instructing  their  delegate 
to  work  for  universal  suffrage,  and  that  there  was  in  the  state 
"what  was  called  a  liberty  party,  and  universal  suffrage  was 
their  one  idea."^^ 

The  legislature  of  the  new  state  was  not  slow  to  act  according 
to  its  power  with  regard  to  the  elective  franchise.  In  March 
1849,  the  Assembly  by  a  vote  of  35  to  32,  and  the  Senate  by 
a  vote  of  9  to  5,  passed  a  law  submitting  the  question  of  equal 
suffrage  to  the  people.  By  a  vote  35  to  22,  the  Assembly 
inserted  in  the  proposed  amendment  the  words:  "And  eligible 
to  hold  any  office  in  the  State."  Perhaps  some  members  were 
the  more  willing  to  accept  this  change  because  they  thought  it 
would  insure  the  defeat  of  the  whole  proposition.^®  The  senti- 
ment in  favor  of  negro  suffrage  was  not  confined  to  any  party ; 
there  was  undoubtedly  a  widespread  feeling  against  the  arro- 
gance of  the  South,  which  naturally  connected  itself  with  the 
general  agitation  of  negro  questions.^''  A  Whig  paper  charged 
that  the  Democrats  were  opposed  to  negro  voting.*"  The  Free 
Soilers  certainly  did  not  make  this  question  their  main  issue, 
for  they  nominated  for  attorney-general,  Marshall  IM.  Strong, 
the  apostate  from  the  negro's  cause  in  the  convention  of  1846.*^ 


^^Ibid.,  pp.  1.30,  18S,  Estabrook.  p.  181,  Cole,  Harvey,  192,  Seagel. 
™7&«rf.,  p.   184,  .Tackson,  p.  198,  Judd. 
"/bid.,  pp.  183,  130. 

^Assembly   Jourval,    Mch.    8,    1849..    pp.    ."587,    .388;    Senate   Journal,   Mch. 
1849.   p.  440. 

^'  J.  T.   Gregory,  op.  cit.  p.   97. 

*"  The  Soufhport  American.   Aug  29,   1849. 

*^lbia.,   Sept.   12. 


[88] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  89 

There  can  be  little  doubt,  however,  that  most  of  those  who 
desired  to  let  black  men  vote  were  in  the  ranks  of  the  Free 
Soilers ;  but  they  were  quarreling  with  the  Old  Time  Democrats, 
they  made  no  campaign  on  the  issue,  and  aroused  little  popular 
interest.  The  total  vote  for  governor  was  31,727,  but  on  negro 
suffrage  the  total  vote  was  less  than  ten  thousand.  The  meas- 
ure was  carried  in  favor  of  the  negroes  by  5,265  to  4,075,*-  but 
it  was  assumed  that  nothing  could  be  determined  by  so  light  a 
vote,  and  it  was  not  until  1866  that  the  supreme  court  inter- 
preted the  words,  "a  majority  of  all  the  votes  cast  at  such  elec- 
tion", to  mean  a  majority  of  the  votes  on  the  particular  ques- 
tion of  negro  suffrage  and  decided  that  colored  people  had 
legally  possessed  the  elective  franchise  for  seventeen  years.*^ 

Illinois,  1847 

Meanwhile  this  question  had  been  raised  in  Illinois.  Colored 
people  had  scarcely  any  rights  in  that  state,  and  politicians 
assumed  the  disfranchisement  of  them  as  a  matter  of  course.  On 
June  13,  1836,  Lincoln,  in  announcing  his  political  views  wrote : 
''I  go  for  admitting  all  whites  to  the  right  of  suffrage  who  pay 
taxes  or  bear  arms  ("by  no  means  excluding  females)".  But 
from  the  early  forties,  anti-slavery  men  had  been  so  persist- 
ently advocating  equality,  citizenship,  and  education  for 
negroes  that  they  liberalized  sentiment  tow^ard  them  in  the 
northern  part  of  the  state  and  created  there  a  demand  for 
negro  suffrage."  Petitions  praying  for  the  repeal  of  all  laws 
making  distinctions  on  account  of  color  were  sent  to  the  legis- 
lature in  1847,*'  and  inevitably  the  question  came  up  in  the 
constitutional  convention  which  sat  during  the  summer  of  that 
year.  Petitions  in  considerable  number  for  and  against  negro 
rights  were  sent  to  the  convention  and  indicated  that  the  mat- 
ter had  been  before  the  public  mind.  A  clause  forbidding  the 
legislature  ever  to  grant  the  right  of  suffrage  to  colored  people, 


'•-Smith,  T.  C,  The  Liberty  and  Free  Soil  Parties  in  the  Northxvest.  p.  333. 
Gregory,  op.  cit. 

1"  20    Wis.   p    .544. 

••*  Harris,  N.  D.,  Xerjro  Scrritiidc  in  Illinois,  pp.  228,  231. 

*^  House  Journal,  Feb.  0,  15,  1847,  pp.  338,  .302;  Sen.  Journal,  .Ian.  0,  pp.  22, 
91.     148. 

[89] 


90  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

was  laid  on  the  table,  91  to  60,  and  an  article  prohibiting  inter- 
inarriage  with  whites  and  declaring  negroes  forever  ineligible 
to  office  was  defeated,  65  to  64."  These  propositions  w^ere 
probably  laid  aside  as  wholly  impertinent.  The  votes  certainly 
are  not  an  indication  of  a  desire  to  have  negroes  vote  or  hold 
office,  for  on  June  22,  when  a  motion  was  made  to  strike  out  the 
word  "white,"  from  a  resolution  instructing  a  committee  to 
consider  certain  amendments  of  the  suffrage  clause,  it  was  de- 
feated, 187  to  8.*"  The  eight  who  favored  the  motion  came 
from  northern  counties  of  the  state.  Cross  and  Church  from 
Winnebago,  Sibley  and  Deitz  from  McHenry,  Swan  from  Lake, 
Mason  from  Kendall,  Judd  from  Kane,  Whitney  from  Boone. 
A  similar  distribution  of  sentiment  is  shown  by  the  popular 
vote  on  another  negro  question.  By  a  vote  of  87  to  56  the  con- 
vention referred  separately  to  the  people  a  clause  which 
directed  the  legislature  to  prohibit  the  immigration  of  colored 
men  into  the  state.  When  this  proposition  was  submitted, 
along  with  the  constitution,  in  the  spring  of  1848,  fourteen 
northern  counties  were  carried  against  it,  but  it  was,  neverthe- 
less, adopted  by  49,063  to  20,884,^^ 

C.-ULiIFORNIA,  1849 

The  North,  like  the  South,  was  averse  to  the  presence  of 
negroes  in  a  state  of  freedom,  and  about  this  time  the  same 
feeling  was  manifested  out  on  the  Pacific  coast.  In  the  autumn 
of  1849  a  convention,  composed  of  members  whose  birth-places 
were  scattered  among  sixteen  states  and  five  European  coun- 
tries,*^ met  to  frame  a  constitution  for  California.  It  was  taken 
for  granted  that  negroes  should  not  be  electors,  and  the  only 


"  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  S'-'A. 

"  III.  Con.  Journal,  1847,  p.  76 ;  also  Puhlications  of  the  III.  Hist.  Library, 
1904,  p.  426. 

<*  Smith,   op.   cit.,  p.   o34. 

♦'Classifled  according  to  birthplace:  Maine  1,  Vermont  1.  Rhode  Island  1, 
Massachusetts  2,  Connecticut  1.  New  York  11,  Pennsylvania  1,  Maryland  5, 
New  Jersey  1,  Virginia  3,  Kentucky  3,  Tennessee  1,  Missouri  1,  Florida  1, 
Ohio  3,  California  7,  Scotland,  Ireland,  Spain,  France,  and  Switzerland  each 
1, — 48.  According  to  previous  residence:  Connecticut  1,  MassacEusetts  2, 
New  York  10,  New  Jersey  2,  Pennsylvania  1,  Maryland  3,  Ohio  1.  Indiana  1, 
Illinois  1,  Wisconsin  1,  Missouri  7,  Virginia  2,  Texas  1,  Louisiana  4,  Oregon  1, 
California  8,   Scotland  1.  France  1.— 48.     Cal.  Con.  Report.,  1849. 

[90] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  91 

reference  to  tlie  idea  of  negro  suffrage  was  made  by  a  mem- 
ber who,  in  arguing  in  favor  of  permitting  Indians  to  vote, 
protested  that  they  should  not  be  classed  with  Africans.^"  On 
September  11,  1849,  a  motion  was  made  to  insert  in  the  bill  of 
rights,  a  section  which  would  prohibit  the  immigration  of  free 
colored  persons,  and  prevent  slaveholders  from  bringing  their 
negroes  to  the  state  for  the  jiurpose  of  setting  them  free."^  The 
precedent  of  Illinois  was  adduced  in  support  of  this  provision. 
Several  members  presented  evidence  that,  unless  it  should  be 
adopted,  slave  owners  would  bring  in  their  slaves,  work  them  a 
short  time  in  the  gold  mines  and  then  set  them  loose  upon  the 
community.'^-  "When  this  constitution  goes  forth  without  a 
prohibitory  clause  relative  to  blacks,  you  will  see  a  black  tide 
setting  in  here  and  spreading  over  the  land.""  "The  whole 
country  will  be  filled  wath  emancipated  slaves,"  said  Mr. 
Semple,  "the  worst  species  of  population — prepared  to  do 
nothing  but  steal,  or  live  upon  our  means  as  paupers."^'*  It 
was  agreed  that  free  negroes  were  thriftless,  ignorant,  and 
vicious  and  that  their  presence  would  be  as  great  an  evil  as 
slavery."^-^  The  introduction  of  negroes  would  degrade  the  white 
laborers.  "The  capitalists  will  fill  the  land  with  these  living 
machines,  with  all  their  attendant  evils,"  said  Wozencraft. 
"Their  labor  will  go  to  enrich  the  fcAV,  and  impoverish  the 
many :  it  will  drive  the  poor  and  honest  laborer  from  the  field, 
by  degrading  him  to  the  level  of  the  negro. "^"^  "Do  you  sup- 
pose the  Avhite  population  of  this  country  will  permit  these 
negroes  to  compete  with  them  in  working  the  mines?"  asked 
IMcCarver.  "Sir,  you  will  see  the  most  fearful  collisions  that 
have  ever  been  presented  in  any  country."^'  Mr.  Tuft  de- 
clared: "It  would  be  a  monopoly  of  the  worst  character.  The 
profits  of  the  mines  would  go  into  the  pockets  of  single  individ- 


«"  Ibid.,  p.   70,  (illhert. 

•■"ibK/.,  p.  48,  McCarver. 

''"-IWd.,  pp.  137,  138.  139.  McCarver.  Semple,  Sept.  10,  p.  .".32.  .Tones,  p. 
146.    Stewart. 

=>3  ma.,  p.  49.  Wozencraft. 

^*Ihia.,   p.    138. 

^'Ibta.,  p.  50.  Wozencraft,  p.  138,  McCarver,  p.  142,  Hastings,  p.  148, 
Semple. 

^"Ihid.,   p.   49. 

^T  Ibia.,  p.  138. 

[91] 


92  BULLETIN    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

nals.  The  labor  of  intelligent  and  enterprising  white  men,  who, 
from  w^ant  of  capital,  are  compelled  to  do  their  own  work, 
would  afford  no  adequate  remuneration.  .  .  .  What  consist- 
ency would  there  be  in  declaring  that  all  men  are  free,  and 
then  deny  our  oAvn  white  citizens  the  privilege  of  laboring  and 
subject  them  to  the  influence  of  monopolies  which  would  not 
only  degrade  their  labor,  but  amount  in  efifect  to  a  prohibition 
of  the  right  to  labor,  for  I  contend,  sir,  that  no  man  can  or  will 
labor  unless  he  is  remunerated  by  the  result.  "^^  It  was  not  the 
last  time  that  race  and  labor  questions  came  up  together  in 
California,  and,  to  those  who  have  even  slightly  considered 
the  arguments  of  later  years  on  Chinese  immigration,  some  of 
the  utterances  on  the  other  side  of  this  negro  question  will  have 
a  remarkably  familiar  sound.  If  negroes  are  to  be  kept  out, 
asked  Gilbert,  "why  not  also  erect  barriers  against  the  miser- 
able natives  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  and  the  Pacific  archipel- 
agoes, against  the  miserable,  the  degraded  wretches  from 
Sydney  and  New  South  Wales,  and  against  the  refuse  of  popu- 
lation from  Chili,  Peru  and  Mexico ?"^^  "I  do  contend,"  said 
Mr.  Shannon,  a  native  of  Ireland,  who  had  seen  prosperous 
and  intelligent  blacks  in  New  York,  "that  free  men  of  color 
have  just  as  good  a  right,  and  ought  to  have,  to  emigrate  here 
as  white  men.  I  think,  too,  that  the  necessities  of  the  territory 
require  them ;  the  necessities  of  eveiy  state  in  the  Union  re- 
quire them.  They  are  required  in  very  department  of  domestic 
life ;  they  form  a  body  that  have  become  almost  necessary  for  our 
domestic  purposes.  ...  I  do  not  want  the  people  of  Cali- 
fornia to  be  cut  of¥  from  the  services  of  any  particular  body  of 
men.  It  matters  not  if  they  were  baboons  or  any  other  class  of 
creations.  "*'''  It  was  argued  that  an  exclusion  clause  would 
violate  the  constitutional  guarantee  of  the  privileges  and  im- 
munities of  citizens,  and  that  Congress,  which  contained  many 
members  with  Free  Soil  principles,  would  refuse  to  admit  Cali- 
fornia into  the  Union.  The  legislature  could  later  take  care  to 
prevent  a  deluge  of  undesirable  population,  but  it  was  imme- 
diately necessary,  aside  from  questions  of  sound  or  unsound 


^i  ma.,  p.   144. 

"^Ibid.,   p.    150. 
^oibia.,  pp.   139,   14::J. 

[92] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  93 

policy,  "to  present  to  tlie  people  a  constitution  free  and  liberal 
in  its  principles.""^  There  were  those,  also,  who  opposed  the 
prescription  of  free  blacks  not  only  as  endangering  the  admis- 
sion of  the  state,  but  as  morally  wrong  and  contrary  to  the 
rights  of  man  and  the  principles  of  freedom/'-  The  fear  that 
statehood  might  be  delayed,  prevailed,  and  the  immigration 
law  was  defeated,*'-'  in  spite  of  the  defiant  words  of  Semple 
who  preferred  "being  kept  out  of  the  Union  to  all  eternity"  to 
acknowledgeing  that  Congress  could  overrule  the  right  to  ex- 
clude free  negroes.  "I  would  take  my  rifle,"  he  said,  "and 
defend  that  right  as  freely  as  I  did  the  flag  of  the  United  States 
when  we  achieved  the  right  to  this  territory.  "°* 

The  year  1850,  in  Avhich  California  was  admitted  to  the 
Union,  brings  us  back  to  consider  three  constitutional  conven- 
tions of  the  Northwest  which  met  that  year  in  the  states  of 
IMiehigan,  Indiana,  and  Ohio. 

jMichigan,  1850 

^lichigan  had  been  settled  mainly  by  people  from  New  Eng- 
land and  New  York,  who  brought  with  them  a  familiarity  wdth 
the  negro  suifrage  question."''  A  member  of  the  convention  of 
1850,  speaking  against  striking  out  the  word  "white,"  said 
that  he  had  voted  down  the  same  proposition  in  the  Michigan 
convention  of  1835.""  During  the  whole  decade  of  the  forties, 
petitions  for  impartial  suffrage  provisions  kept  appearing  in 
the  Legislature.  The  number  was  greatest  in  1846,  and  de- 
creased in  the  last  few  years  before  1850."^  The  j^ear  after  the 
report  of  the  committee  to  the  Iowa  constitutional  convention 


"7eK/.,  p.    i40.  Dimmick.  p.  150.  Gilbert,  p.   330  Norton. 

«-/b(V/.,  p.  Hf),  (Jilbert,  p.  14-1,  Shannon. 

"■■■Ibid.,  p.  332,  vote  39  to  8. 

"Kntid.,  p.  332 ;  see  Thorpe.  Constitutional  Hii-tonj  of  the  American  People, 
II.   297. 

''^Thorpe,  o/.'.  cit..  II..  p.   3.-«3..   Smith,  op.  cit.,  327. 

"^  Michiaan  Convention  Debates,  1S50.,   p.   758,   McClelland. 

"House  Journal.  1840.  p.  ,330:  1S41.  p.  170;  1842.  pp.  63.  7.".,  lOG,  111.  160, 
161.  213;  1S43,  pp.  95,  1.S5.  165,  197,  259.  290:  1844,  pp.  14,  32,  42, 
51.  .".7,  66.  74,  89,  ',/5,  101.  107,  114.  142,  293,  309;  1846,  pp.  21,  26,  38,  43, 
44.  58,  09,  7.:,  74,  78,  82.  93,  99,  113,  114,  123,  132.  145,  157,  337,  400;  1848 
p.  200 :  1849  and  1850  apparently  none.  ISenate  Jovrnal.  1842.  pp.  83,  89,  104, 
145;   1843  none;   1844,   pp.   10,   198:   1845  pp.   27,    42,   53,    133. 


[93] 


94  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

was  made,  an  equally  notable  document  on  the  other  side  of 
the  question  was  produced  in  Michigan.  On  March  10,  1845,  in 
the  Michigan  Senate,  Mr.  J3enton  from  the  committee  on  State 
Affairs,  to  whom  had  been  referred  sundry  petitions  for  strik- 
ing the  word  ''white"  from  the  constitution,  offered  a  report 
on  the  subject  of  negro  suffrage.*^®  The  natural  rights  of  man, 
"the  Siamese  brotherhood  of  taxation  and  representation.  .  .  . 
the  peculiar  claims  on  democracy  to  carry  out  its  principles," 
were  leading  considerations  in  favor  of  removing  all  color  dis- 
tinctions. Denton  was  a  Democrat,''''  fully  believed  in  Jack- 
sonian  principles  and  carried  them  to  a  logical  conclusion.  "No 
principle  is  more  dear  to  pure  democracy,"  he  declared,  "than 
the  extension  of  suffrage."  He  would  not  agree  that  negroes 
were  outside  the  body  politic.  "We  are  united  as  a  nation,  but 
by  voluntary  compact,"  he  explained.  "A  compact  based  on 
man's  natural  rights  binds  us  into  a  common  people.  While 
these  rights  and  their  consequent  principles  are  pracii- 
calhj  respected,  our  compact  will  be  performed  and  our 
union  indissoluble."  He  denounced  the  "preposterous 
puerility  of  making  color  a  qualification  for  suffrage," 
and  denied  that  negroes  were  of  inferior  race  or  had 
weaker  intellects  than  white  men.  "Neither  history  nor 
experience  sustains  the  objection.  On  the  contrary  they 
conclusively  refute  it.  Like  other  nations  Africa  had  her 
season  of  glory.  During  it  she  was  one  of  the  most  powerful 
nations  of  the  world.  Her  victorious  arms  had  nearly  annihi- 
lated the  Romans.  Her  black  Hannibal  will  ever  be  found  in 
the  catalogue  of  the  Caesars  and  Bonapartes."  He  showed 
by  the  experience  of  other  states  that  negro  suffrage  would  not 
encourage  immigration  of  free  blacks.  He  denied  that  the  col- 
ored people  would  all  adhere  to  the  same  party.  "At  present, 
but  one  political  party  advocates,  as  a  party  measure,  colored 
suffrage,"  and  it  naturally  has  the  sympathy  of  negroes;  but 
once  the  right  is  granted  they  will  divide  among  all  parties. 
"Public  opinion  has  materially  changed  on  the  subject  since 
our  constitution  was  formed.     Each  year  gives  evidence  of  a 


'^Senate  Journal,  1845,  p.  263. 
«>  Mich.  Con.  Debates,  1850,  p.  287. 


[94] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  95 

growing  interest  in  the  topic  and  in  others  incident  to  it.  The 
ballot  box  of  last  fall  spoke  the  sentiment  of  nearly  four  thou- 
sand voters.  Already  the  constitutional  restriction  has  been 
swept  away  before  the  rising  sentiment,  and  the  colored  man 
was  permitted  to  vote  in  Detroit,  on  an  election  of  unprecedent- 
ed interest,  neither  party  having  the  hardihood  to  offer  a  chal- 
lenge on  the  ground  of  color."  Restriction  of  negro  voting 
by  a  property  qualification  would  be  as  objectionable  as  total 
disfranchisement,  for  by  it  "integrity  of  principle  would  be 
surrendered. ' ' 

Another  member  of  the  committee,  Abner  Pratt,  replied  in  a 
minority  report  in  which  he  complained  that  he  had  not  been 
given  notice  that  any  action  was  to  be  taken,  and  that  only  a 
short  time  was  left  him  to  prepare  an  answer.  The  substance 
of  his  argument  Avas,  that  the  effect  of  negro  suffrage  would 
be  to  till  the  state  ''with  fugitive  slaves  from  Missouri,  Tennes- 
see, Kentucky  and  Virginia,"  who  in  a  few  years  might  become 
so  numerous  that  they  could  elect  some  of  their  number  to  of- 
fice. The  majority  of  the  Senate  were  in  sympathy  with  these 
views,  and  accordingly,  by  a  A'-ote  of  9  to  6,  the  report  and  the 
joint  resolution  were  referred  back  to  the  committee. ^°  The 
six  who  voted  in  the  minority  were  probably  Democrats,  for 
the  Liberty  men  were  not  yet  strong  enough  to  elect  so  large  a 
proportion  of  the  Senate.  It  could  have  been  no  other  than 
the  Liberty  party  that  was  mentioned  as  advocating  negro  suf- 
frage as  a  party  issue,  for  the  voting  strength  of  nearly  four 
thousand  Avas  just  about  the  strength  of  that  political  organiza- 
tion in  Michigan  in  1844.'^i  Changing  into  the  Free  Soil  party, 
its  strength  steadily  increased,  and  in  1848  Michigan  cast  10,389 
votes  for  Van  Buren." 

When  the  constitutional  convention  met  in  1850,  the  agita- 
tion for  negro  suffrage  temporarily  found  a  ncAV  channel. 
During  the  first  Aveeks  of  the  session  there  Avere  sent  to  the  con- 
vention many  petitions  signed  Avith   an   aggregate   of  about 


^0  Documents   accompanying   the   Senate  Journal   of  Micliigan,    at   the   annual 
session  of  1845,  No.  1.") ;  Sen.  Journal,  185,  p.  263. 
■'  Smith,  op.  cit.,  p.  o25. 
■"iMd. 

[95] 


96  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

three  thousand  names.""  A  member  said  that  the  petitioners  on 
this  subject  numbered  six  times  as  many  as  the  petitioners  on 
all  other  subjects  which  had  come  before  the  convention/*  On 
June  27th  came  the  inevitable  motion  to  strike  out  the  w^ord 
' '  white ' '  from  the  article  on  elections. '''  Many  arguments  em- 
ployed in  other  conventions  appeared  in  Michigan  at  this  time. 
The  word  ' '  white ' '  was  indefinite ;  no  one  could  tell  to  what 
shade  of  color  it  applied."  Many  negroes  were  good  citizens, 
peaceable,  industrious  and  progressive,  and  their  neighbors 
spoke  well  of  them.  Their  apparent  inferiority  was  due  to 
slavery  and  prejudices  of  whites.  The  experiences  of  New 
England  show^ed  that  granting  them  the  elective  franchise 
would  not  cause  an  influx  from  the  South.  Political  equality 
would  not  bring  about  social  equality.  Suffrage  extension 
would  be  in  accord  with  the  principles  of  democracy,  with  the 
ideal  of  no  taxation  without  representation,  and  with  the  doc- 
trine that  "all  power  is  inherent  in  the  people.""^  IMr.  Leach 
said  a  majority  of  his  constituents  must  be  in  favor  of  removing 
the  discrimination,  for  they  well  knew  his  views  when  they 
elected  him.'^  Suffrage  was  a  natural  right,  or.  if  there  was  a 
distinction  between  natural  and  conventional  privileges,  "all 
men  certainly  have  the  same  natural  right  to  enjoy  those  con- 
ventional rights,  because  the  father  of  democracy  tells  us  that 
'all  men  are  created  equal.'  "'''  Disfranchisement  would  be 
unrepublican  and  unjust,  "an  act  destitute  of  every  vestige  of 
honor,  unless  there  is  honor  in  the  triumph  of  the  strong  over 
the  weak.  "^° 

The  opponents  of  negro  equality  were  .quite  sure  that  negroes 
were  inferior  and  depraved,  that  they  could  not  permanently 
dwell  together  with  whites  on  a  plane  of  equality,  that  negro 
suffrage     would     cause     amalgamation     and     compel     associa- 


-■■' Michigan    ConvenUon    Dehntes,    I80O..   pp.    .30,   6S.    93,    102,   120,    175,    218, 
240.  257,  286,  297.   from  .Time  8  to  June  26. 
'•*lbia.,  p.   284,   Williams. 
^'■IMd.,  p.  284,  Orr. 
'^  Ibid.,  p.  284,  Pierce. 

■>- lUd.,  pp.   28.^.,   286,    287,    288,    289.    Leach,    N.   Pierce. 
■<»  Ibid.,  p.  285. 
'"Ibid.,  p.  290,  Leach. 
"ojbid.,  p.  289. 

[96] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  97 

tion  of  the  races  in  churches  and  legislatures.  Granting  blacks 
the  privileges  of  electors  would  attract  hordes  of  them  into 
Michigan,  and  they  would  crowd  the  whites  out  of  the  penin- 
sula. The  Declaration  of  Independence  could  refer  only  to 
white  men,  for  both  Jefferson  and  Washington  held  slaves. 
Negroes  were  more  enlightened  and  happy  in  America  than 
l)pek  in  Africa  where  their  lives  were  at  the  mercy  of  blood- 
thirsty chiefs,  or  than  they  would  if  separated  from  the  whites, 
and  sent  away  for  twenty  years  to  live  by  themselves.  The 
obligations  of  justice  had  been  more  than  satisfied,  and  the 
people  of  3Iichigan  were  not  bound  to  be  so  imprudent  as  to 
divide  their  political  authority  with  negroes,  or  to  let  them 
have  a  share  in  piloting  the  ship  of  state  on  which  they  had 
been  suffered  to  become  passengers.  Attempts  to  secure  equal- 
ity between  races  that  nature  had  so  widely  separated,  could 
result  only  in  misery.  The  true  mode  of  relief  would  be  col- 
onization:  "I  believe  the  African  has  come  here  to  be  edu- 
cated for  a  great  purpose,"  said  one  member  more  in  jest  than 
earnest.  "When  he  shall  be  raised  to  a  certain  state,  in  com- 
parison with  our  own,  he  will  go  back  to  Liberia  *  *  *  to 
Africa  *  *  *'  to  find  the  sources  of  the  Nile,  which  have 
never  been  found  by  those  barbarous  tribes. "^^ 

The  motion  to  strike  out  "white"  was  lost,  and  then  the  prop- 
osition to  submit  the  c|uestion  to  the  people  was  considered.*^- 
It  was  objected  that  a  negro  suffrage  clause  had  no  chance 
of  being  ratified  and  a  submission  of  it  would  only  create  popu- 
lar excitement  about  a  dangerous  question. ^^  In  reply,  it  was 
said  that  many  people  wished  to  vote  on  this  issue,  that  it  had 
been  agitated  in  the  Legislature  for  several  years,  and  that  a 
referendum  would  quiet  this  agitation.®*  An  attempt  to  have 
negroes  included  in  the  basis  of  representation  had  failed,®^ 
another  motion  to  strike  out  the  word  "white"  was  defeated 
by  46  to  13, ""^  but  the  resolution  which  referred  the  question  of 


"  Ibifl. 

pp.   287,  I'OO.  1201.  Bagg.  pp. 

280, 

29fl,  Fierce 

^-Jbifl.. 

pp.    296,    2!t7. 

^  Ibid.. 

pp.  297.   483.  Bagg. 

»<  Ibid.. 

p.    297,    }5ush.    Kingsley. 

»i  Ibid.. 

p.    29.'>.    F.ritian. 

'^  Jbid., 

p.    758. 

[97] 


98  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

colored  suffrage  to  the  people  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  54 
to  12.«^ 

The  convention  which  took  this  action  was  overwhelmingly 
Democratic,  with  a  few  Whig  and  Free  Soil  members.^^  The 
nativity  of  the  members  was  probably  fairly  representative  oi 
the  origin  of  Michigan's  population.  There  was  only  one  na- 
tive of  Michigan,  while  four-fifths  of  the  delegates  were  born 
in  New  York  or  the  New  England  states. ^'-^  Nearly,  all,  there- 
fore, who  voted  either  way  on  the  suffrage  question  were  na- 
tives of  those  states,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  the  pro- 
portionate number  of  delegates  in  favor  of  permitting  blacks  to 
vote  was  not  only  smaller  than  in  New  York  in  1846,  but 
smaller  than  in  Wisconsin  in  1847.^'^  Perhaps  this  was  due  to 
the  predominance  in  the  convention  of  Democrats,  among  whom 
the  most  rabid  anti-negro  men  were  found,  for  the  friends  of 
the  African  made  a  better  showing  at  the  fall  election,  when 
the  constitution  was  adopted  by  36,  169  to  9,433  and  the  negro 
suffrage  clause  rejected  by  32,026  to  12,840.''i 

Indiana,  1850 

The  sentiment  in  Indiana  was  much  less  favorable  to  the 
negro  than  in  Michigan.  The  suffrage  had  been  agitated  along 
with  other  negro  questions  during  the  preceding  decade,  al- 
though it  had  not  been  very  prominent  in  the  two  or  three 
years  preceding  the  convention.^-  In  the  canvas  before  the 
election  of  delegates  to  that  body,  however,  negro  suffrage  was 
an  important  issue,  and  was  discussed  in  all  parts  of  the 
state.°^  Members  of  the  convention  associated  the  agitation 
for  extension  of  the  elective  franchise  to  colored  people,  wath 
the  Free  Soil  party :  to  them,  a  Free  Soiler  was  presumptively 


'•  IMO.,  p.    746. 

^•<lbid.,  p.  487,  Bagg. 

Si*  Maine  2,  Vermont  8,  New  Hampshire  4,  Massachusetts  13,  Connecticut  10, 
Now  York  4o,  Tennsylvania  3.  New  .Jersey  2,  North  Carolina  1.  Virginia  3, 
Michigan  1,  Upper  Canada  .3,  Lower  Canada  ,4  New  Brunswick  1,  Ireland  2, 
Scotland  1. 

""Ante.,  pp.  77,  80. 

»'  Whig  Almanac,  1851.,  p.   51)  . 

"2  Debates  in  the  Indiana  Convention,  1850.   p.  252,   Kilgrave. 

^^  IMd.,  p.  2o0.  Colfax,  p.  233,  Foster,  p.  235,  Rohinson,  Blvthe. 

[98] 


OLBRICII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  99 

in  favor  of  letting  black  men  vote,  although  it  was  pointed  out 
that  the  same  opinions  on  this  question  were  held  by  many,  per- 
haps several  thousand,  members  of  other  political  organiza- 
tions.''^ Estimates  of  the  number  who  sided  with  the  African 
on  this  question,  varied  from  five  thousand  to  ten  thousand.®^ 
This  was  a  small  number  in  the  comparatively  populous  com- 
monwealth of  Indiana,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  there  was 
elected  to  the  convention  only  one  delegate  who  voted  for  negro 
suffrage. 

There  were  more,  however,  who  were  willing  to  have  the  peo- 
ple decide  the  issue  for  themselves.  On  October  23,  1850,  Mr. 
Hawkins  presented  a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  a  majority  of 
the  legal  voters  might,  at  a  general  election,  provide  for  univer- 
sal suffrage.  The  present  constitution,  he  said,  was  undoubt- 
edly a  compact  or  agreement  or  contract  among  the  white  men 
over  twenty-one  years  old  in  the  state;  but  they  ought  to  be 
able,  if  they  ever  desired,  to  admit  others  into  the  compact.^' 
No  definite  action  seems  to  have  taken  on  this  proposition,  but, 
on  the  26th,  Schuyler  Colfax,  later  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  Reconstruction  times  and  Vice-President 
with  Grant,  presented  another,  which  differed  from  that  of  Mr. 
Hawkins  in  providing  for  just  one  vote  on  the  negro  suffrage 
question  to  be  taken  separately  when  the  constitution  should 
be  submitted  to  the  people. °' 

The  speakers  in  favor  of  this  provision  nearly  all  carefully 
declared  that  they  were  themselves  opposed  to  negro  suffrage,, 
although  one  of  them  intimated  that  he  might  be  induced  to  vote 
for  extending  the  elective  franchise  to  negroes  under  property 
and  educational  qualifications,^-^  but  they  argued  that  permit- 
ting the  people  to  vote  directly  on  the  issue  would  quiet  agita- 
tion, and  would  conciliate  the  Free  Soilers  who  might  other- 
wise oppose  the  new  constitution  itself.^"  The  members  of  the 
third  party  had  a  right  to  be  heard,  for  they  were  people  cf 
worth  and  character.     They  were  emminently  moral  and  intel- 


»*i6irf.,  p.  229.   242,  Colfax,   2o4,  Kilgore. 

"5  Ibid.,  p.  229,  Colfax,  p.  251,  Edmonston. 

^'IhicL,  p.  172. 

^■' Ihid.,  p.  229. 

'•'s  Ibid.,  p.  25.3,  Kilgoi-e. 

^'>  Ibid ,  p.  2o0,  Colfax,  p.  2ol.  Owen.  p.  234  Robinson,  p.  2.30,  Crumbacker., 

[99] 


100  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

ligent  people,  Mr.  Robinson  declared.  "They  compose  a  large 
portion  of  the  pioneers  of  this  country.  They  were  here  im- 
proving the  soil,  perhaps,  before  some  gentlemen,  who  have 
taken  it  upon  themselves  here  to  denounce  them,  were  located 
upon  it. "  "  The  free-soil  party ' ',  said  Colfax, ' '  number  in  their 
ranks  as  high  minded  and  honorable  men  as  any  upon  this  floor. 
"From  my  own  knowledge  of  a  great  many  persons  belonging 
to  that  party,  I  can  testify  for  them  to  their  respectability  and 
sterling  worth.  "^°''  But  the  majority  were  not  so  willing  to 
dally  with  the  idea  of  negro  suffrage,  and  some  opposed  it  with 
fierce  disgust.  Mr.  Dobson  declared  that  he  wanted  "to  settle 
it  right, ' '  and  moved  an  amendment  providing  that  unless  they 
were  in  a  majority,  "all  persons  voting  for  negro  suffrage  shall 
themselves  be  disfranchised."  "Whenever  you  begin  to  talk 
about  making  negroes  equal  with  white  men  I  begin  to  think 
about  leaving  the  country."^  Submitting  this  question  to  the 
people  would  be  throwing  a  firebrand  that  would  keep  up  the 
unpleasant  "sectional  feeling  growling  out  of  the  slavery  ques- 
tion. ' '  -  The  state  would  be  ' '  flooded  with  those  lecturers,  who 
would  not  hesitate  to  dissolve  the  Union  in  order  to  carry  out 
their  principles."^  Mr.  Edmonston  said:  "This  threat  (that 
Free  Soilers  will  vote  against  the  constitution)  has  no  terrors 
for  me,  so  long  as  the  alternative  is  that  I  shall  agree  to  submit 
to  the  people  the  question  of  placing  a  black  negro  upon  an 
equality  with  a  white  man."  On  the  expediency  and  justice 
of  negro  suffrage  itself,  tlie  usual  arguments  were  advanced: 
that  Africans  were  ignorant  and  of  an  inferior  race,  that  they 
were  better  off  in  America  than  in  their  original  home,  that 
race  differences  made  political  association  impossible.  "The 
black  race  has  been  marked  and  condemned  to  servility;  and 
should  feeble  man  claim  to  erase  from  them  the  leprosy  whicli 
God  has  placed  upon  them?"*  As  in  previous  conventions,  the 
question  of  immigration  came  up  with  that  of  suffrage.  The 
majority  agreed  that  free  blacks  were  an  undesirable  element 


"Mbu/..  p.   L';'.4,   Uobinson,  p.   i-!-',   Colfax,   p.   '-'SO,   Crumbacker. 

■Jbid..,    pp.    232,    28K. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  2-;5,   Robinson,  p.  2:57,   Peppci'.  p.  240.   Magnire.  p.  240.   nrahaiu. 

"  IWa.,  p.  232,  Edmonston. 

*  Hid.,  p.   2.'>1,   On-on.   p.   2:^:',   Hobson,   p.   2:\~.   Hawkins,    p.   2.51   Edmonston. 

[100] 


.OLBRICO— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  101 

of  population  aud  ought  to  ])e  kept  out.  The  recent  measure 
of  Kentucky,  to  exclude  and  expel  from  the  state  all  negroes 
who  were  not  slaves,  were  regarded  as  necessitating  drastic  ac 
ticG  by  Indiana  to  avoid  being  overrun  by  multitudes  of  colored 
prcfligates  and  paupers,  and  "old,  unserviceable,  and  superan- 
nuated negroes"  who,  in  the  slave  states,  "are  set  free,  that 
their  masters  may  not  have  to  support  them."'  Unless  the 
whites  would  am^algamate  with  the  blacks,  or  give  up  the  state 
to  them,  they  must  keep  them  out  and  try  to  be  rid  of  those  al- 
ready in  the  commonwealth.  "They  should  all  be  sent  to  Li- 
beria or  some  other  part  of  Africa,"  said  one  member.  "I  be- 
lieve they  have  intelligence  enough  to  build  up  a  successful 
community  on  the  shores  of  their  native  Continent,  and  to  gov- 
ern themselves  .  .  .  They  can  introduce  civilization  and  per- 
haps do  for  Africa  what  the  Anglo-Saxon  had  done  for  Amer- 
ica. .  .  .  They  will  take  with  them  the  Bible,  and  a  knowl- 
edge of  our  institutions — they  will  ultimately  occupy  all  that 
country  and  become  a  prosperous  and  happy  people.'^ 

The  men  of  anti-slavery  sympathies,  although  not  in  favor  of 
letting  negroes  vote,  opposed  so  harsh  a  measure  as  excluding 
them  from  the  state,  filr.  Hawkins  denounced  a  proposition 
"to  prohibit  the  immigration  of  any  portion  of  God's  rational 
human  beings,  born  on  American  soil,  and  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  stars  and  stripes,  as  a  greater  outrage  upon  all  the 
principles  of  our  boasted  institutions  than  any  other  yet  pre- 
sented.'' ]Mr.  Kilgore,  who  thought  favorably  of  restricted 
negro  suffrage,''  denied  that  negroes  were  inferior  by  nature. 
"Give  them  the  proper  training  and  they  will  exhibit  as  much 
talent  as  any  class  of  beings  upon  God's  footstool."^  Only  one 
member  came  out  defiantly  on  the  side  of  the  black  race.  A 
resolution  instructing  the  committee  on  elective  franchise  to 
report  a  provision  that  negroes  and  mulattoes  should  be  voters 
at  all  elections  was  offered,  in  order  to  make  a  more  decisive 
issue,  bv  a  member  who  said  he  himself  would  vote  in  the  nega- 


'^Jhicl..    p.    '1?A.    Robinson,    p.    :j28.    Dobson,    p.    247.    Read    of    Clark,    p.    -249, 
Graham. 

"/fxV/.,  p.   2:!n,   Dobson,   pp.   247,  Read   of   Clarl:,   pp.    24S,   249,   Stevenson. 

'  Ihid.,    p.    237. 

"  Anie..  p.  09. 

^Debates   in   1lic  Indiana  Consliliilion.   1850.   p.   252. 

[101] 


102  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSm 

tive.^**  It  was  thought  that  no  one  would  speak  in  favor  of 
such  a  resolution,"  but  Mr.  May  rose  and  declared  that  it  was 
the  duty  of  the  Convention:  "To  give  to  the  negro  this  right  of 
suffrage  under  such  restrictions  as  may,  after  a  careful  view 
of  the  subject,  seem  most  wise  and  for  the  best,"  such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  were  imposed  on  foreigners.  "Either  the  negro  is  a 
man  constituted  like  ourselves  by  nature,  or  else  he  is  only  an 
animal— a  mere  brute.  If  the  negro  be  but  the  mere  brute— let 
lis  treat  him  as  one  in  all  respects.  Let  us  also  efface  the  divine 
stamp  of  immortality  and  the  evidences  of  manhood  from  his 
features,  and  brand  the  word  'chattel'  upon  his  brow.  But  if 
we  decide  that  the  negro  is  a  man — that  he  has  the  attributes 
of  humanity — then  let  us  for  our  sake,  if  not  for  his,  for  con- 
sistency's sake,  ever  recognize  him  as  a  man  and  treat  him  as  a 
man.  I  shall  never  shrink  from  uttering  my  conviction  that 
there  is  much  timth  in  the  principles  of  the  Free  Soil-part3^  I 
regret  to  see  that  there  exists  here,  every  disposition  to  crush 
every  expression  of  sympathy  for  the  negro  race,  and  I  have 
sometimes  fancied  I  saw  a  disposition  in  this  hall  to  crush  to 
the  ground  every  man  who  ventured  to  give  utterance  to  such 
sympathy.  "^- 

Mr.  May,  who  represented  DeKalb  and  Steuben  counties  in 
the  north-eastern  corner  of  the  state,  Avas  the  onh^  one  who 
voted  for  the  proposed  instructions  to  the  committee ;  the  vote 
stood  122  to  1.  The  proposition  of  Colfax  to  submit  the  ques- 
tion to  the  people,  was  defeated  by  62  to  60. ^■"  The  provision 
for  excluding  negroes  from  the  state  which  was  to  be  referred 
to  the  people  was  carried  by  a  vote  of  93  to  40  and  ratified  at 
the  polls  by  the  voters  of  the  state,  although  20,956  ballots 
were  east  against  it.^*  Not  content  with  leaving  the  color  dis- 
crimination as  it  stood  in  the  constitution  of  1816,  which  lim- 
ited the  suffrage  to  "white  male  citizens"  with  the  proviso  that 
the  article  should  not  be  construed  to  disfranchise  "citizens  of 
the  United  States,  who  were  actual  residents  at  the  time  of 


^0  Ibid.,   p.    239,    Berry. 

^^  ima.,  p.  238. 

'-Ibid.,  pp    245,   240. 

^3  Ibid.,  p.   253. 

^^  Ibid.,  1816-3  7.   p.   2077;   Smith,  op.  eit.,  p.  3:)7. 

[102] 


OLP.RTCri— ^EGRO    SUFFRAGE  103 

adopting-  this  constitution,  and  who,  by  the  existing  laws  of  this 
Territory,  are  entitled  to  vote,"  the  convention  left  out  this 
obsolete  clause  and  inserted  ^.  new  section:  "No  negro  or 
mulatto  shall  have  the  right  of  suffrage.  "^^ 

Ohio,  1850 

The  Ohio  convention  of  1850-1851  took  up  the  negro  question 
on  December  4,  1850,  when  Mr.  Woodbury  moved  to  expunge 
the  word  ' '  white ' '  from  the  suffrage  article.  Several  members 
spoke  vigorously  in  favor  of  this  motion;  the  principal  speeches 
were  made  on  February  8,  1851.  It  would  be  in  accord  with 
the  principles  that  all  men  are  created  equal  and  that  just  gov- 
ernments can  be  founded  only  on  consent,  and  would  cause 
negroes  to  become  better  and  more  contented  citizens. ^*^  Mr. 
Townshend  referred  to  the  blacks  as  "a  portion  of  the  people 
of  this  State  wlio  have  the  same  right  to  stand  upon  this  part 
of  God's  earth,  and  to  breathe  this  free  air  that  you  or  I  have." 
He  denied  that  this  was  the  white  man's  country  or  that  it  was 
just  to  exclude  black  men  from  it ;  negroes  had  lived  here  as 
many  generations  as  Caucasians,  and  had  fought  for  the  na- 
tion's liberty  and  had  received  the  praises  of  General  Jackson 
for  their  valor  at  New  Orleans.  ' '  No  government,  here  or  else- 
where, has  a  right  to  say  who  shall  or  who  shall  not  live  in  any 
part  of  the  wide  world."  If  the  two  races  cannot  live  together 
in  peace,  why  is  it  so?  "I,  too,  will  appeal  to  history  and  defy 
anyone  to  point  out  an  instance  where  these  conflicts  have  not 
grown  out  of  the  attempt  on  the  part  of  one  race  to  oppress 
the  others."  He  was  a  Democrat  and  believed  democracy  was 
in  accord  with  the  golden  rule  of  Christ.  "I  see  no  reason  why 
democracy  is  not  like  Christianity,  comprehensive  enough  to 
embrace  the  whole  family  of  men." 

The  other  side  had  the  votes  and  did  not  need  to  make 
speeches;  but  one  of  their  number  urged  that  negro  suffrage 
"would  necessarily  inflame  the  antipathies  now  existing  be- 
tween the  two  races.    We  may  say  that  these  antipathies  are 


15  Poore,   I.,   pp.   497,   514. 

i«0?iio    Convention    Reports,    1850-51.,    I.,    p.    679,    Woodbury;    II..    p.    1178 
Townsend;  p.   117!),  Hitchcock,  p.  1181.  Woodbury. 

[103] 


104  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSIN 

wrong,  niichrisliaii;  but  foul  words  will  not  do  away  with 
facts."  Another,  utterly  denied  that  blacks  had  the  same 
rights  as  white  men  in  this  country.  "At  the  same  time  I  ad- 
here to  the  motto  of  'equal  rights  to  all,  exclusive  privileges 
to  none,'  I  am  willing  that  the  colored  race  should  be  col- 
onized."^' The  anti-slavery  men  admitted  that  public  senti- 
ment would  prevent  many  members  from  voting  for  equal  suf- 
frage against  the  will  of  their  constituents,  and  reproachfully 
compared  the  close  vote  in  the  convention  of  1802  with  the 
present  overwhelming  m.ajority  against  the  negro. ^^  The  mo- 
tion to  strike  out  "white"  was  defeated,  66  to  12.  Although 
there  w^ere  thirty  natives  of  Ohio  in  the  convention,  only  one  of 
them  voted  for  negro  suffrage.  One  of  the  twelve  was  a  native 
of  Pennsylvania,  one  of  England,  three  of  New  York  and  six 
of  New  England.  All  of  them  were  representatives  of  North- 
eastern counties  in  the  region  of  the  Western  Reserve,  then  the 
principal  Free  Soil  area  of  the  state.^'' 

The  colored  people  themselves,  encouraged  by  the  anti-slavery 
agitation,  soon  took  up  the  question  and  began  to  press  their 
demands  for  equal  suffrage.  In  1854,  a  state  convention  of 
negroes  appointed  one  of  their  number,  a  mulatto  named  J. 
Mercer  Langston,  to  draw  up  a  memorial  for  equal  suffrage  to 
the  legislature.  The  memorial,  which  was  presented  to  the 
general  assembly  on  April  19,  1854,  set  forth  that  negroes  were 
men  and  as  men  had  rights,  and  that  "it  is  unjust,  anti-demo- 
cratic, impolitic,  and  ungenerous  to  withhold  from  us  the  right 
of  suffrage."  It  was  adopted  in  the  Senate  as  part  of  the 
report  of  the  committee,  w^hich  submitted  a  bill  in  accordance 
with  the  request.  Most  notable  of  all,  it  w^as  accompanied  by  a 
letter  from  William  H.  Seward,  dated  May  16,  1850,  in  which 
he  expressed  his  opinion  that  no  citizens  of  New  York  voted 
more  conscientiously  than  the  free  negroes  and  his  hope  that 
the  elective  franchise  would  soon  be  extended  "to  this  race, 


"Ibid.,  TL,  p.  nso.   Sawyer.  Nash. 

^^  lUd.,  II.,  pp.   1180.   1181,   riumphrevilio.  Woodbury. 

^^  Ibid.,  II..  p.  l!82.  The  nativity  of  tlie  convention  was:  Connecticut  10, 
New  Hampshire  2,  Massachusetts  5,  Vermont  3,  New  Yorlr  9,  New  Jersey  1, 
Pennsylvania  25.  Ohio  oO.  Delaware  1,  Washington  D.  C,  1,  Georgia  1,  Ken- 
tucky :!.  Virginia  8,  Maryland  4,  Tennessee  1,  Ireland  1,  England  2,  Germany  1, 
Ibid.,    I.,    XXVI-XXVIl. 

[104] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  105 

who  of  all  others  need  it  most."  The  writer  of  the  memorial, 
I\[r  Langston,  stated  that  he  had  been  elected  clerk  of  a  town- 
ship in  which  he  was  the  only  colored  resident,  that  the  like  had 
never  been  known  in  Ohio  before,  and  that  his  election  proved 
"tlie  steady  march  of  anti-slavery  sentiment."-*' 

Negro  Suffrage  in  Relation  to  P.vrty  and  Race 

The  intimate  connection  between  the  Liberty  and  Free  Soil 
pai'ties  and  the  sentiment  for  negro  suffrage  is  certain;  the 
enemies  of  negro  equality  alM^ays  charged  or  assumed  that  Lib- 
erty men  and  Free  Soilers  and  Abolitionists  were  in  favor  of 
it :  the  votes  for  Free  Soil  candidates  and  for  negro  suffrage 
were  numerous  in  the  same  areas  and  were  approximately 
equal  in  number.  For  example,  the  Free  Soil  vote  of  Wiscon- 
sin in  1848  was  10,418,  while  a  year  and  a  half  before  the  vote 
for  negro  suffrage  had  been  7,664;  the  Free  Soil  vote  of  Michi- 
gan in  1848  was  10,389  while  the  vote  for  negro  suffrage  in 
1850  was  12,046;  the  vote  for  negro  suffrage  in  Connecticut 
in  1846  was  5,616;  for  Van  Buren  in  1848,  it  was  5,005.  The 
same  New  York  Counties  which  gave  majorities  for  equal 
suffrage  in  1846,  gave  large  votes  for  Van  Buren  in  1848.  The 
northern  counties  of  Illinois  and  the  northeastern  counties  of 
Ohio,  from  which  delegates  favorable  to  abrogation  of  color  dis- 
tinctions, and  the  eastern  counties  of  Wisconsin  where  the  vote 
for  negro  suffrage  was  heaviest,  were  all  regions  of  Free  Soil 
strength ;  while  in  Michigan,  both  the  vote  for  colored  suffrage, 
and  the  Free  Soil  vote,  were  evenly  distributed  throughout  the 
state.-^  In  the  various  state  convention  there  were  many  na- 
tives of  NeAv  York  and  New  England  who  voted  against  giving 
Africans  the  elective  franchise,  but  there  were  almost  no  na- 
tives of  any  other  regions  who  voted  for  it.  Up  to  1850,  at 
least,  the  votes  for  negro  suffrage  and  for  Free  Soil  candidates 
are  accountable  as  due  mainly  to  the  presence  of  New  England 
or  New  York  elements  in  the  population,  or  to  the  work  of 
New    England    Abolitionists    and    anti-slavery    agitators,     al- 


-' Noll.   Volnrrd    Patriots,  ptc.   pp.   ^{."G-.'M  1 . 

-1  Smith,   op.  c!t..  pp.  .1:^.7,   325,   326;   Whig  Ahiianac.  1849,   pp.    54,  64;   Ante, 


[105] 


106  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

though  in  Indiana  and  Iowa  the  Quakers  added  their  strength 
on  the  same  side.  Since  these  forces  were  stronger  in  the 
northern  than  in  the  southern  parts  of  the  old  Northwest,  it  is 
natural  to  find  that  there  were  proportionately  more  Free 
Soilers  and  champions  of  negro  equality  in  Wisconsin,  Michi- 
gan and  Northern  Ohio  than  in  Illinois,  Indiana  and  southern 
Ohio.  Still  more  significant  of  the  difference  between  the  two 
parts  of  the  Northwest  area  is  the  character  of  the  opposition 
to  negro  suffrage,  which  was  far  more  aggressive,  determined 
and  scornful  in  the  south  than  in  the  north  of  this  region.  In 
the  three  southern  states  the  question  was  not  even  submitted 
to  the  people,  while  in  Michigan  and  "Wisconsin  it  was.  It  is 
notable  that  frequently  the  men  who  would  not  vote  for  negro 
rights  themselves,  but  favored  submission  of  the  matter  to  pop- 
ular arbitrament,  seemed  eager  to  testify  to  the  intelligence  and 
eminent  respectability  of  Free  Soilers  and  others  who  were  on 
the  side  of  permitting  colored  men  to  vote."-  Such  men  were  not 
beyond  all  persuasion;  it  seems  fully  warrantable  to  say  that 
in  the  northern  part  as  compared  with  the  southern  part  of  the 
Northwest,  there  were  many  more  people  who  were  approach- 
ing or  were  at  the  point  of  conversion  to  negro  suffrage.  The 
course  of  events  from  1850  to  1857,  the  next  important  year  in 
the  history  of  negro  suffrage,  was  favorable  to  such  conversion ; 
for  during  that  time  anti-slavery  feeling  grew  apace,  and  the 
Kansas-Nebraska  struggle,  the  Dred  Scot  case  and  the  suc- 
cessful launching  of  the  Republican  party  were  amoug  the 
intervening  occurrences. 


■Ante.,  pp.  80,  87.  100. 


[106] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  107 


CHAPTER  V       • 

THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  AND  NEGRO  SUFFRAGE, 

1857  to  1860 

Iowa,  1857 

In  the  state  of  Iowa  these  things  had  brought  great  change, 
and  there  was  a  great  diiiference  between  the  situation  in  1844 
and  1846,  and  that  in  1857  when  the  third  constitutional  con- 
vention assembled  at  Des  iMoines.  The  Kansas-Nebraska  con- 
troversy brougbt  about  the  defeat  of  the  Democratic  party  in 
1854,  after  it  had  ruled  the  state  from  its  beginning.^  One- 
third  of  that  triumphant  phalanx  had  deserted  and,  together 
with  the  Free  Soilers  and  Whigs,  had  formed  the  Republican 
party.-  In  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  convention  of  1857, 
the  negro  suffrage  was  agitated  in  some  communities,^  and  it 
was  known  that  many  people  Avere  in  favor  of  equal  political 
rights  to  white  men  and  blacks.  The  suffrage  issue  did  not 
come  to  a  direct  vote  in  the  convention,  although  several  peti- 
tions against  disfranchisement  on  account  of  color  were  re- 
ceived ;■*  but  on  January  26,  there  was  introduced  a  resolution 
that  the  committee  on  suffrage  be  instructed  to  inquire  into  the 
expediency  of  submitting  the  question  to  the  vote  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  on  February  23,  a  select  committee  reported  a  recom- 
mendation that  the  people  be  permitted  to  vote  directly  on  the 
question  of  expunging  "white"  from  the  constitution.^  A 
minority  report  was  presented,  to  the  effect  that  the  state  of 
public  sentiment  was  not  a  matter  of  doubt,  and  that  the  only 
result  of  throwing  this  question  into  politics,  would  be  "to 


'  loiva   Constitutional  Ddiates,  11.57.   II.,   p.   677,   Clarke   of  Henry. 

-  Ibut.^  II.,  p.  672,  Marvin. 

"  Ihid.,  II.,  p.  67.".  Ells;   p.  680,  Gower. 

♦  !bi(t.,   pp.   11.5,    ;J16. 

^  IbirL,  1.,    p.   45.,    II.,   p.   G4!>. 

[107] 


108  BULLETIN    OF    THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

furnish  material  and  food  for  morbid  and  forbidding  senti- 
nient.*^  The  minority  further  presented,  as  containing  their 
views,  the  report  on  negro  suffrage  made  to  the  convention  of 
1844.^  The  views  of  this  docum.ent  were  derided  by  the  Repub- 
licans. HoAv  could  tlie  degraded  African,  as  he  was  called, 
ever  control  the  lofty  Saxon  ?  How  can  a  race  said  to  be  so 
ignorant,  control  the  ballot-box  and  absorb  the  powers  of  gov- 
ernment? The  argument  of  the  report  implies  that,  "our  sisters 
and  our  daughters  will  refuse  the  alliance  of  this  boasted,  this 
superior  Anglo-Saxon  race,  and  seek  husbands  among  this 
black  race ;  and  our  brothers  and  our  sons  will  turn  their  backs 
upon  the  daughters  of  the  daughters  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and 
go  to  the  dusky-browed  daughters  of  the  descendants  of  Ham 
for  their  conjugal  consorts."^  What  danger  is  there  that 
negroes  will  be  elected  to  office?  "The  negro  man  who  could 
get  elected  to  any  office — -must  needs  be  a  very  Christ  in  ebony. 
Do  the  people  need  anything  to  prevent  such  a  casualty,  except 
their  own  prejudices  and  their  destestation  of  the  black  race?"° 
The  idea  that  the  privilege  of  voting  would  attract  free  negroes 
into  the  state  was  regarded  as  preposterous.  The  climate  and 
other  conditions  would  keep  them  out  of  Iowa  as  out  of  New 
England.^" 

These  practical  admissions  of  prejudice  were  confirmed  by 
direct  statements,  but  prejudice  w^as  not  to  be  W'eighed  against 
principle.  "I  acknowledge  with  something  akin  to  shame,"  said 
Clarke  of  Henry,  ' '  a  great  repugnance  against  that  injured  and 
degraded  race,  the  African.  But  —  in  spite  of  that  feeling 
which  leads  me  to  cry  out  at  times,  'would  to  God  I  had  the 
power  to  transport  every  one  of  African  descent  back  to  the 
continent  from  which  the  race  originated,' — I  throw  aside  my 
own  feelings  and  prejudices,  and  say,  let  us  unite  together  and 
do  right,  whatever  the  consequences— 'let  justice  prevail 
though  the  heavens  fall.'  Now  when  gentlemen  come  to  me  and 
are  so  unkind  and  ungenerous  as  to  say  that  I  am  doing  tliis 


''Ibid.,   II..   p.  (550. 

'Ibid.,,  II..  pp.  (',50-651;   Ante.  pp.   102-104. 

^Jbid.,  II.,  p.  6(>.S,   Clarko  of  Alamal:ee. 

»■  Ibid.,   II.,   p.  677,   Clarke   of  Henry. 

^"Ibid.,  II.,   pp    (i(!7,   GG9.  078,   Clarl;e  of  Tlmry.   p.   074,   EDis. 


[108] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  109 

for  ' tlie  love  of  the  negro,'  I  tell  them  that  what  I  do  here  in 
this  matter  I  do  from  a  conscientious  love  of  the  principles  in 
Avhich  I  have  been  nurtured,  and  under  which  I  have  lived  all 
the  days  of  my  life."  He  had  lived  in  New^  York  and  had  seen 
colored  men  vote  sometimes  for  the  third  party  but  usually  for 
tlie  Whigs,  and  when  counted  out,  their  ballots  "looked  and 
counted  just  the  same  as  those  of  white  folks,  and  I  presume 
the  gentleman  from  Des  I\Ioines  could  not  even  have  smelled 
the  difference.'"^  ]Mr.  Ells  said  that  a  strong  prejudice 
against  color  existed  everywhere  in  the  North,  stronger  than  in 
the  South  where,  he  thought,  the  feeling  of  repugnance  w^as  not 
against  the  black  man's  race  so  much  as  against  his  state  of 
slaver3^  There  Avere  only  three  hundred  negroes  in  Iowa,  and 
the  question  of  suffrage  was  therefore  not  a  practical  one,  "and 
I  am  satisfied  that  were  it  not  for  carrying  out  a  consistent  rule 
of  right  action,  that  no  considerable  portion  of  the  people 
Avould  give  any  attention  to  the  subject.  Let  us  do  right  and 
leave  the  consequences  to  God  and  our  country."^-  j\Ir.  Llarvin 
stated:  "I  hold  the  acknowledgement  of  the  equal  rights  of 
all  men  to  be  a  sacred  principle — I  know  there  are  thousands 
of  persons  that  think  so  much  of  the  maintenance  of  this  prin- 
ciple, that  unless  it  were  presented  to  them  in  some  shape,  they 
could  not  be  induced  to  vote  for  the  constitution.^^  Ells  said 
that  some  of  his  own  constituents  held  similar  views,  especially 
the  Scotch  Covenanters  and  Presbyterians,  although  a  majority 
were  opposed  to  negro  suffrage.  Out  of  respect  to  this  majority 
he  did  not  urge  the  expunging  of  "white"  in  the  convention, 
but  merely  wished  to  let  the  people  decide.  As  for  himself:  "I 
am  perfectly  willing  that  the  right  of  suffrage  should  be  as 
broad  as  the  universe  of  Cod.  I  have  no  fear  in  trusting  any 
class  of  men  with  the  right  to  vote,  provided  they  have  the 
qualifications  of  manhood."^*  Clarke  of  Henry,  also,  had  con- 
stituents who,  like  himself,  would  not  vote  for  the  new  consti- 
tution unless  thy  could  have  an  opportunity  of  voting  to  wipe 


^' Jhia.,  II..  p.  nrn. 

'-  Ibid..  I.,  pp.   674.   i'tl. 
^■'Ihia.,  II.,  p.  672. 
"  IMd.,  II.,  p.  673. 


[109] 


110  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

out  the  color  discrimination.^^  To  conciliate  those  who  would 
maintain  principle  against  prejudice,  "though  the  heavens 
fall,"  the  question  of  negro  suffrage,  it  was  urged,  should  be 
submitted  to  popular  vote. 

The  referendum  was  supported,  according  to  Ells,  by  every 
Eepublican  except  Clarke,  of  Jolinson,^''  The  latter 's  reply 
reveals  the  other  principles  of  the  party  at  that  time.  The 
Republicans,  as  a  party,  did  not  stand  for  negro  suffrage.  They 
w^ere  opposed  to  extension  of  slavery.  They  were  opposed  to 
all  such  laws  against  negroes,  as  those  which  prohibited  their 
giving  testimony  in  courts  or  prevent  them  from  settling  in  the 
state.  As  for  the  referendum,  Clarke  declared  that  he  would 
not  submit  to  the  people  a  proposition  which  he  himself  would 
not  support :  ' '  No  man  believes  that  it  can  command  a  respect- 
able vote  in  the  State.  And  yet  w^e  are  wasting  time  in  dis- 
cussing this  subject,  and  creating  odium  against  ourselves, 
against  the  constitution,  and  against  the  Republican  party, 
upon  a  question  upon  which  the  party  has  never  taken  ground, 
and  in  favor  of  which  they  are  not  committed."^' 

This  speech  opened  up  a  long  discussion  of  party  history  and 
party  doctrine  which  showed  how  closely  men  associated  the 
negro  suffrage  question  with  the  sectional  strife  about 
slavery.^^  What  they  considered  the  aggressions  of  the  South, 
had  stirred  up  their  feelings  against  the  wrong  of  involuntary 
servitude.  They  did  not  intend  to  take  away  the  master's  prop- 
erty, but  they  Avould  do  their  best  to  make  it  worthless  to  him 
by  forbidding  him  to  carry  it  into  new  territory.^^  They  had  no 
right  to  interfere  with  slavery  w^here  it  existed,  but  they  "would 
do  it  as  much  indirect  injury  as  the  letter  of  the  constitution 
would  permit.  "We  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  it.  But 
we  can  raise  our  voice  against  it  on  every  occasion.  We  can 
refuse,  here  in  the  free  state  of  Iowa,  to  bolster  it  up  by  becom- 
ing its  apologists.    And  so  far  as  we  have  the  power  and  the 


^^Ihid.,   II,   669. 

"/bid.,   I.,   p.    675. 

"  Ihid.,  II.,  pp.  675.  676,  also  p.  GSO,  Peters. 

^^IbUI.,  II.,   pp.   681-*J11. 

^^  JMd.,  II..   pp.  700,  701,   Pauvin. 


[110] 


OLBRICH— NEGKO  SUFFRAGE  111 

constitutional  and  legal  right,  so  far  should  we  go  against  it."-" 
They  did  not   go  so  far  to  say  that  the  constitution  was  a 
"league  with  hell  and  a  covenant  with  death";  but  they  were 
sure  that  any  thing  like  cheerful  fulfilment  of  certain  consti- 
tutional obligations,  such  as  the  return  of  fugitive  slaves,  was 
morally  wrong.    What  we  now  know  to  have  been  the  conse- 
quence of  this  attitude  was  pointed  out  by  a  Democrat,  Mr. 
Hall,   who   mourned  the  good   old   days  when    the   Whig   and 
Democratic  parties  were  national  in  extent,  dividing  between 
them  every  county,  township  or  neighborhood.  North  or  South, 
and  contrasted  the  old  order  with  the  existing  sectional  divi- 
sion caused  by  the  clash  of  interests  and  the  clash  of  moral  con- 
victions.    "If  this  nation  is  to  be  brought  into  conflict,  if  this 
universal  sentiment  which  pervades  the  north,  is  to  be  brought 
into  collision  with  the  universal  sentiment  which  exists  in  the 
south,  then  a  fig  for  this  union  !"-^     It  was  charged,  especially 
by  those  Republicans  who  were  apostates  from  Democracy  that, 
at  the    dictation    of   the    South,    the    Democratic    party    had 
changed  its  position  on  the  sl^^very  question,  and  that  the  South 
no  longer  defended  slavery  as  a  curse  inflicted  upon  Ham  and 
his  descendants  but  as  "right  in  itself"  and  upon  the  ground 
"that  the  laboring  classes  ^properly  belong  to  the  capitalists."" 
In  view  of  these  considerations,  Mr.  Bunker  declared  that  he 
had  changed  his  mind  about  the  color  discrimination  and  was 
now  in  favor  of  removing  it:     "I  really  think  that  we  would 
suffer  more  by  continuing  this  word  'white'  in  the  constitu- 
tion, and  we  would  be  in  far  greater  danger  of  sapping  the 
principles  of  civil  liberty,  than  we  would  by  allowing  the  few 
negroes  who  may  be  in  the  state  the  privilege  of  voting  at  our 
elections.-^     No  doubt  the  sam.e  mental  process  was  reversing 
the  convictions  of  others.     It  was  pointed  out  that  the  opinions 
of  men  were  making  rapid  progress,  and  suggested  that  the 
Republicans  as  a  reform  party  might  yet  bring  the  people  to  a 


^^  Ibid.,    II..    p     682,    Edwards. 
-^Ihid.,  II.   pp.   0.^7,    68S,  690. 

^^-IMd.,   II.,  p.  709,   Clarke  of  .Vlamakec,   pp.   SS9-90],    Clarke  of  Johnson,  p. 
907,  Ellis,  p.  911.  Kunker. 
^Ubid.,    II.,   p.   911. 


[Ill] 


112  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSII? 

most  advanced  position.-^  In  the  light  of  events  of  tlie  subse- 
quent decade,  the  words  of  Mr.  Ells  were  prophetic:  "The 
Republican  party  of  this  country,  sir,  is  emphatically  a  progres- 
sive party;  and  any  man  or  set  of  men  who  attempt  to  pre- 
scribe limits  to  its  political  action  for  all  coming  time,  must  set 
thoir  bounds  far  into  the  misty  future,  or  they  will  find  them- 
selves overwhelmed  with  tlie  'ground  swell,'  now  setting  in- 
land from  the  mighty  ocean  of  moral  truth.  That  which  satis- 
fies the  people  today  will  become  obsolete  and  be  cast  off  to- 
morrow. The  wonderful  developments  made  in  the  moral  and 
political,  as  well  as  the  natural  sciences,  within  the  last  tAventy 
years,  admonishes  us  to  be  careful  how  we  cripple  ourselves  by 
the  adoption  of  any  short  sighted  policy  of  political  action."-"' 
The  Democrats  made  an  attempt  to  substitute  for  the  refer- 
endum provision  an  article :  ' '  No  negroes  or  mulattoes  shall 
come  into  the  State  after  the  adoption  of  this  constitution," 
but  were  defeated  by  a  vote  of  25  to  8.-"  Then  by  20  to  13  the 
convention  adopted  the  resolution  which  referred  to  the  peo- 
ple the  question  of  striking  "white",  from  the  article  on 
suffrage.-'  The  nativity  of  this  convention  differed  but  slightly 
from  that  of  the  similar  bodies  of  1844  and  1846,  although 
there  was  a  somewhat  smaller  proportion  of  southern  born 
members  than  in  the  convention  of  1846  r^  but  the  relative 
strength  of  parties  had  been  just  about  reversed.  This  is  not 
the  only  evidence  of  how  opinions  and  sentiments  had  changed ; 
in  1848  and  1852,  the  Free  Soil  vote  of  Iowa  had  been  less  than 
one-twentieth  of  the  total  vote  cast  at  the  presidential  elections 
of  those  years :  in  August,  1857,  the  negro  suffrage  article  was 
supported  by  probably  one-fifth  of  a  total  vote  that  was  four 
times  as  large  as  the  total  vote  of  1852.-^  But  Iowa  was  still 
far  from  her  advancd  position  of  Reconstruction  times. 


^*  Ibid.,  II.,  p.   67G,   Clarke  of  Johnson. 

^^  Ibid.,  II.,  p.   675. 

■"Ibift.,  II.,  p.  yi3. 

"-■<  IMd.,  II.,   pp.  916,   10!)5. 

=' Maine  2,  Massachusetts  1,  Connecticut  3,  New  Yorli  7,  Pennsylvania  3,  New 
Jersey  1,  Ohio  7,  Indiana  L',  Maryland  1.  Virginia  4.  Tennessee  1,  Kentucky  4, 
Ihhl.,  T..  p.  4,  Ante.,  pp.   77,  82. 

-"ir/iiV/  Almanac,  1S49.  p.  64;  for  1853,  p.  Q2 ;  for  1858,  p.  62;  James,  Johns 
Hopkin's  Historical  i^imlics.  vol.  ?rvin..  ■•>.  :•,!--.  Mrdison.  (Wis.^  Argus  and 
Democrat,   September   18,    1857.      James    says   the   colored   suffrage    article   waa 

[112] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  113 


Minnesota.  1857 


The  events  connected  "with  the  framing  of  the  first  constitu- 
tion of  Minnesota  show  clearly  the  attitude  of  the  two  chief 
political  parties  in  that  state.  The  election  of  delegates  to  form 
a  constitution  was  very  close.  The  Democrats  thought  at  first 
that  they  had  swept  the  territory  but  later  the  returns  showed 
that  the  Republicans  had  elected  many  of  their  candidates. 
Apparently  some  of  the  seats  in  the  convention  were  in  dispute, 
for  when  the  delegates  assembled  at  St.  Paul,  the  fifty-nine 
Republicans,  in  order  to  control  the  convention,  stayed  up  all 
night  and  appropriated  the  hall  in  which  the  convention  was  to 
meet,  as  soon  as  the  doors  were  opened  in  the  morning.  The 
fifty-two  Democrats  had  proposed  to  the  Republicans  to  or- 
ganize the  convention  at  noon,  and  when  they  found  their  op- 
ponents in  possession,  they  met  in  a  separate  convention  and 
drew  up  another  constitution.  The  difficulty  was  finally  settled 
by  a  committee  of  conference  which  reported  for  ratification  by 
the  two  bodies  a  constitution  substantially  the  same  as  the  one 
drawn  up  in  the  Democratic  convention.'"^ 

The  report  of  the  Democratic  convention's  suffrage  commit- 
tee was  read  August  12,  1857.  It  confined  the  elective  franchise 
to  white  citizens  and  civilized  Indians.  A  motion  was  made  to 
strike  out  the  word  "Avhite"  before  "citizens"  on  the  ground 
that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  Dred  Scott 
case,  had  held  that  negroes  were  not  citizens,  and  that  there- 
fore the  word  "white"  was  useless;  but  other  members  doubted 
whether  the  question  of  negro  citizenship  had  been  settled  defi- 
nitely enough  to  make  it  safe  to  leave  out  the  color  discrimina- 
tion.   The  only  other  reference  to  negroes  seems  to  have  been 


defeated  by  40,000.  The  total  vote  for  and  against  the  constitution  was 
7;), 27:5.  On  the  basis  of  the  latter  figures,  the  Argus  and  Democrat  estimated 
That  the  vote  on  striking  out  "white"  probably  stood  60,000  to  20,000.  It  is 
not,  however,  probable  that  this  article  called  out  so  large  a  vote  as 
the  constitution.  In  the  convention  a  member  estimated  the  probable  vote 
for  negro  sufirage  as  low  as  four  or  five  thousand.  DeMtes,  II.,  p.  Ofl.  Bunker. 
■"'Minnesota  Convention  nel)ates.  18.57,  pp.  .372,  37.3,  Hayden ;  Minnesota  Con- 
stitutional Debates,  1S57..  pp.  G76  and  1,  Reporter's  Preface.  The  former  is 
the  record  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Republican  convention ;  the  latter  that 
of  the  Democrat  convention. 

[113] 


114  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OP    WISCONSII* 

made  when  the  militia  article  was  under  discussion.  One 
speaker  said  that  undoubtedly  everyone  present  Avas  willing  to 
admit  persons  of  mixed  white  and  Indian  blood  to  the  militia, 
but  he  would  exclude  blacks  and  mulattoes,  by  providing  that 
the  state  militia  should  be  composed  only  of  qualified  voters."^ 
In  the  Republican  convention,  also,  the  suffrage  article  as 
reported  on  August  6,  contained  the  word  "white".  The  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  motion  to  expunge  the  obnoxious  dis- 
crimination were  along  familiar  liues.  "All  governments  among 
men  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned," said  Mr.  Messer,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire,  "I  am 
not  disposed  to  discuss  here  whether  colored  persons  are  men 
or  not.  I  believe  it  is  conceded  in  this  body,  that  an  immortal 
spirit,  a  human  soul,  may  exist  under  a  black,  an  olive,  or  a 
white  skin."  "The  great  object  of  a  constitution  should  be  to 
protect  the  weak,"  said  ^Ir.  Hudson,  a  New  Yorker,  "the  great 
principle  involved  in  the  amendment  is,  equal  rights  to  all  men. 
The  opposite  is  Aristocracy  and  Monarchy."  jNIr.  North,  who 
also  was  born  in  New  York,  explained  that  before  the  Revolu- 
tion, it  had  been  customary  to  insist  on  the  rights  of  English- 
men :  ' '  But  when  the  philosophers  of  the  Revolution  were  called 
upon  to  base  themselves  upon  principles  which  would  justify 
their  action,  they  made  a  platform  as  broad  as  the  whole  human 
family."  A  color  discrimination  would  be  "an  absolute  wrong, 
which  we  have  no  right  to  inflict  upon  any  class  of  our  fellow- 
men.  There  is  a  standard  of  right  eternally  fixed,  by  which 
all  law  and  law  makers  are  to  be  tested."^-  Astonishment  was 
expressed  that  men  of  foreign  birth,  who  had  just  acquired  the 
right  to  vote,  should  sign  a  report  which  kept  that  right  from 
the  black  man.^^  Colored  men,  at  least  the  mulattoes,  who  had 
in  their  veins  of  the  best  Virginian  blood,  were  certainly  as 
good  as  the  half-breed  Indian  children  of  gamblers  and  whisky 
sellers,  whom  it  was  proposed  to  enfranchise.^*  The  prejudice 
against  Africans  was  not  uniform.     "This  truth  is  illustrated 


31  Minnesota  Constitutional  DehateSj  pp.   442,  427,   428,   154. 
"-Minnesota    Convention   Delates,   p.    337,    Messer,   pp.    342,    343,    Hudson,    p. 
350.   North. 

^'  Tbi(t.,  p.  rjoO,  Mantor. 

^Ihid.,  p.  360,  North,  p.  341,  Foster. 

[114] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  ^SUFFRAGE  115 

by  tlie  manner  in  which  children  of  both  races  play  together 
in  the  earlier  years  of  infancy.  This  prejudice  is  not  developed 
until  they  are  taught  tliat  there  is  a  social  inequality."  The 
convention  should  take  the  initiative  and  lead  public  opinion 
on  the  question  of  giving  negroes  their  just  rights.^^  It  was 
urged  that  colored  men  had  fought  in  the  battles  for  independ- 
ence, and  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  that  before  and  after  the 
victory  of  New  Orleans,  General  Jackson  had  praise.d  the  cour- 
age of  the  negro:  "His  blood  equally  with  that  of  the  w^hite 
man  enriches  the  soil  of  our  common  country."^''  On  the  men 
who  advanced  these  arguments,  Mr.  Galbraith,  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  made  this  comment:  "They — declare  that  a 
man's  highest  state  of  happiness  is  in  his  right  to  vote.  They 
seem  to  assume  that  the  chief  end  of  man  is  voting.  They  argue, 
and  put  their  whole  stress  upon  it,  that  the  negro  should  vote  at 
all  hazards."  He  continued  to  the  effect  that  negroes  could 
not  be  assimilated :  ' '  Gentlemen  may  cry  out  in  their  affection 
for  the  poor  degraded  African  what  they  please,  yet  he  remains 
among  us  without  friends.  The  seal  of  degradation  is  upon  the 
poor  downtrodden  African,  and  years  and  ages  must  pass  be- 
fore the  seal  can  be  removed. "''' 

The  motion  to  strike  out  "white"  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of 
34  to  17.^^  But  this  vote  did  not  indicate  that  only  seventeen 
members  were  in  favor  of  negro  suffrage :  seven  others  declared 
themselves  in  favor  of  removing  the  color  distinction,  but  did 
not  vote  for  the  motion  either  because  they  had  been  absent  or 
because  the  people  would  not  sustain  them.^^  One  member 
estimated  that  only  one-tenth  of  the  convention  were  opposed 
to  negro  suft'rage  from  conviction,  and  another  said  that  the 
question  had  been  considered  in  a  caucus  of  the  members  of 
the  convention,  and  that  not  more  than  six  had  been  opposed 
on  principle  to  giving  negroes  the  elective  franchise.*"  It  was, 
however,  feared  that  the  constitution  would  be  rejected  at  the 


25  Ibid.,  p.  371.  Perkins. 

3^  Ibid.,  p.  o.'17,  Messer,  pp.  355,  356,  North. 
''^  Ibid.,  pp.   343,   344. 
^Ibid.,   p.   366. 

3"  Ibid.,   p.    341,    Foster,    p.    :3G4.   P.alcombe.    p.    303    Hudson,    p.    395,    Bittings, 
394.  Robbins,  p.   3!)8.  Aja  Coombs. 
*"  Ibid.,  p.  305,   Baleombe,  p.  301,  North. 

[115] 


116  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

polls,  if  the  word  "white''  should  he  eliminated,  and  it  was 
urged  that  the  matter  of  gravest  immediate  concern  A^as  to 
help  restrict  the  expansion  of  slavery  by  sending  anti-slavery 
Senators  and  representatives  to  Congress.*^  "I  do  not  be- 
lieve," said  Foster,  "the  people  are  quite  up  to  the  highest 
mark  of  principle :  the  force  of  prejudice  is  yet  so  strong 
among  them.  .  .  A  great  contest  is  going  on  between  the  antagon- 
istic powers  of  slaveiy  and  freedom,  for  the  plains  of  the  We'st. 
...  If  we  go  to  Congress  with  two  Senators  upon  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  and  our  members  in  the  House,  all  upon  the  side  of  free- 
dom, we  accomplish  more  for  the  cause  of  freedom — freedom 
for  the  white  and  freedom  for  the  black — than  we  should  be 
engaging  here  in  a  vain  contest  upon  an  abstraction."  It  was 
agreed,  however,  that  there  were  many  people  in  the  territory 
opposed  to  the  color  discrimination  and  that  it  would  be  safest 
to  conciliate  them  by  submitting  the  question  of  striking  out 
"white"  to  popular  vote.'-  An  appropriate  resolution  was  ac- 
cordingly adopted  but  was  lost  in  the  conference  with  the 
Democratic  convention.*'  It  is  apparent,  therefore,  that  a  very 
considerable  element  of  the  Republican  party  in  IMinnesota  de- 
sired to  expunge  all  color  discriminations  from  the  text  of  the 
state  constitution,  and  that  already,  on  this  question,  the  politi- 
cians were  in  advance  of  the  people.  In  this  as  in  other  con- 
ventions, the  liberal  sentiment  on  negro  questions  was  in  large 
measure  due  to  the  potent  influence  of  New  York  and  the  New 
England  States:  thirty-seven  of  the  fifty-nine  members  of  the 
convention  and  fifteen  of  the  seventeen  who  voted  to  strike  out 
the  word  "white"  were  natives  of  those  commonwealths.''* 


*'•  Ibid.,  p.  o(i.5,  Balcombe.  p.  :!04,  Robbins.   pp.  341.  .'ifiS,   Foster. 

*^lbkl.,  p.  .338,  Messer,  p.  .*}61,  North,  p.  360,  p.  360,  Wilson,  p.  :!04.  Robbins,  p. 
400,    Cleghtern. 

*- Ibia.,  p.  572  . 

"The  nativity  of  the  convention  was:  New  York  11.  Maine  4,  Massachusetts 
5,  Vermont  5,  New  Hampshire  10.  Rhode  Island  1,  Ohio  4,  Pennsylvania  6, 
New  Jersey  1,  Indiana  1.  North  Carolina  1,  Virginia  2,  England  1,  Ireland  1, 
Scotland  1,  Germany  1,  Prussia  1,  Sweden  1,  Canada  1 ;  of  those  who  voted 
to  expunge  "white"  :  New  Y'ork  5,  New  Hampshire  5.  Massachusetts  3,  Vermont 
1,  Maine  1,  North  Carolina  1.  J^cotland  1. 


[116] 


OI.BRICII— NEGRO    SUFFRAGE  117 


Wisconsin,  1857 


The  year  1857  also  saw  the  negro  suffrage  question  submitted 
a  third  time  to  the  voters  of  Wisconsin.  In  accordance  with 
the  power  granted  to  the  Legislature  by  the  constitution  of  1848, 
a  bill  was  introduced  in  the  Senate,  January  21,  1857  to  provide 
for  a  popular  vote  on  extending  the  suffrage  to  colored  persons, 
A  committee  reported,  a  week  later,  that  it  was  doubtful 
whether  the  vote  of  1849  on  the  same  question  had  not  con- 
ferred the  elective  franchise  on  negroes,  and  that  it  was  inex- 
pedient to  take  another  popular  vote  until  the  legal  effect  of 
the  former  one  should  have  been  judicially  determined ;  but  the 
bill  was  nevertheless  passed  by  a  vote  of  15  to  5.*^  The  Assem- 
bly committee,  on  jMarcli  2,  proposed  an  amendment  providing 
that  the  question  of  woman  suffrage  should  also  be  submitted 
to  the  people,  and  made  a  long  report.  The  Assembly  imme- 
diately adopted  the  amendment  by  a  vote  of  41  to  29  and 
passed  the  bill,  40  to  33,  but  on  the  next  day  receded  from  the 
amendment  and  left  the  bill  in  its  original  form.*®  The  report 
signed  by  David  Noggle  and  J.  T.  Mills  discusses  both  the  ques- 
tion of  the  negro  suffrage  and  that  of  woman's  suffrage.  With 
reference  to  the  former  the  committee  denounced:  "the  bar- 
barous and  unmanly  dogma  that  human  rights  are  qualities  of 
color."  They  adverted  to  the  difficulty  of  deciding  who  were 
white  persons,  and  proceeded  in  a  spirit  of  the  most  expansive 
liberality:  "Tlie  Holy  Bible  tells  us  the  diversity  of  tongues 
in  the  early  ages,  repelled  the  tribes  of  mankind  from  each 
other,  and  snapped  tlie  fraternal  band  of  unity ;  but  the  steam- 
ship verifying  the  strange  prediction  that  there  shall  be  no 
more  sea;  the  railroad  trains  traversing  the  girdle  of  the  earth 
like  new  formed  satellites ;  the  submarine  telegraph  that  fills 
the  deep  with  the  consciousness  of  human  thought — prove  that 
the  period  of  clannish  prejudice,  of  national  animosities,  of  re- 
ligious bigotry,  of  cutaneous  aristocracy  is  passing  aAvay. 
There  may  be  fossil  men  among  the  active  living  masses  of  the 


*5  Wisconsin  Senate  Journal,    1857,   pp.   .59.    115,   197. 
*«  Assembly  Journal,  1857,  pp.  711,  712,  751. 


[117] 


118  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

present  time,  stubborn  conglomerates  of  obsolete  ideas,  drifted, 
and  rolled  like  lost  stones  in  the  path-way  of  human  progress ; 
but  it  is  a  blunder  of  destiny  that  some  men  are  born  in  an  age 
to  which  their  natures  are  not  adapted.  Eagle-eyed  science 
does  not  recognize  the  distinctions  of  color.  In  her  temple  the 
swarthy  Euclid  stands  by  the  side  of  the  pale  browed  Newton. 
*  *  *  Let  him  who  glories  in  the  fairness  of  his  hide,  quarrel 
with  a  taDow  candle  as  to  which  is  the  whiter,  and  therefore 
the  most  noble.  The  present  earnest  and  active  age  has  no 
time  to  settle  the  magnificent  contest.  But  who  is  excluded  on 
account  of  color  by  our  constitution?  Is  the  Chinese,  the 
Spaniard,  the  Moor,  the  Hindoo,  the  Turk,  or  ail  of  them  ex- 
cluded? Intercourse  has  brought,  and  will  continue  to  bring 
in  increasing  numbers,  emigrants  from  all  these  countries  to 
our  shores.  If  it  is  the  African  blood  we  prescribe,  does  the 
•constitution  apply  to  emigrants  from  all  nations  of  Africa?  If 
the  negro  is  the  Amalek  of  our  antipathy,  who  shall  tell  us  how 
much  of  the  accursed  blood  is  sufficient  to  expel  him,  like  the 
leper,  from  the  body  politic?"*" 

The  ciuestion  of  suffrage  extension  was  much  more  prominent 
In  the  political  controversy  preceding  the  fall  election  than  it 
Iiad  been  in  1846  and  1849.  The  Democratic  party  was  unequiv- 
ocally opposed  to  giving  black  men  the  privileges  of  whites. 
On  July  10,  the  Madison  Argus  and  Democi-at,  discussed  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  recalled  that  Washington  held 
slaves,  and  concluded  that  the  declaration  had  no  reference  to 
negroes.  Later  the  whole  Democratic  press  assaulted  Gover- 
nor Bashford  because  he  had  appointed  a  colored  man  to  the 
office  of  notary  public,  and  when  the  Democratic  state  conven- 
tion met,  they  announced  their  position  on  the  suffrage  issue  in 
a  resolution:  "That  Ave  are  unalterably  opposed  to  the  exten- 
sion of  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  negro  race,  and  will  never 
consent  that  the  odious  doctrine  of  negro  equality  shall  find  a 
place  upon  the  statute  books  of  Wisconsin."^*  It  was  a  safe 
issue  for  the  Democrats,  and  they  did  not  fear  to  define  their 
position.     They  argued  that  it  involved  the  questions:  "Shall 


^''Appendix  to  Asseniblii  Journal,  1857.  vol.   II.,  nest  to  last  document. 
"Madison  Argus  and  Democrat,  July  10,  August  1.  and  September  5,  1857. 


[118] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  119 

negroes  be  admitted  to  the  social  circles,  to  our  tables  and  fire- 
sides? Shall  negroes  marry  our  sisters  and  daughters,  and 
smutty  wenches  be  married  by  our  brothers  and  sons?  Shall 
we  amalgamate?"  They  denounced  negro  equality  as  "odious, 
unnatural  and  wrong,"  attacked  ]\Ir.  ]\lcrdynn,  a  candidate  for 
the  office  of  superintendent  of  schools  because  he'  would  have 
white  children  "placed  side  by  side  on  the  seats  of  the  school 
room,  and  taught  in  the  same  classes  with  the  descendents  of 
blackamoors  and  Hottentots,"  and  opposed  negro  suffrage 
' '  because  it  is  a  scheme  to  bring  the  white  race  down  to  the  level 
of  the  negro,  because  political  equality  must  necessarily  lead  to 
social  equality  of  the  races,  because  negro  suffrage  and  amalga- 
tion  go  hand  in  hand.""*^ 

The  position  of  the  Republican  party  on  the  negro  suffrage 
question  was  not  so  unmistakable.  It  was  the  Republicans 
who  submitted  the  issue  to  the  people,  and  during  the  summer 
of  1857,  most  of  their  newspapers  argued  for  equality  at  the 
baUot-box.  Yet  it  must  have  been  evident  that  the  voters  of 
the  state  would  never  ratify  the  proposed  extension  of  suffrage 
to  the  African  race.  The  crushing  defeat  of  the  similar  meas- 
ure at  the  August  election  in  Towa  warned  the  politicians  as  to 
the  real  state  of  public  sentiment.  AVhen  the  Republican  partj' 
convention  assembled  early  in  September,  it  disposed  of  the 
suffrage  ciuestion  by  an  ambigious  resolution:  "That  we  are 
utterly  hostile  to  the  proscription  of  any  man  on  account  of 
birthplace,  religion  or  color."  Under  the  circumstances,  even 
this  was  bold  language,  and  according  to  the  Argus  and  Demo- 
crat,  probably  would  not  have  been  adopted  but  for  the  insist- 
tence  of  Sherman  Booth,  "and  his  old  abolition  guard."  Many 
of  the  prominent  Republican  newspapers,  however,  including 
the  Berlin  Coiirant,  the  Omro  Eepuhlican,  the  Fond  du  Lac 
CommoniveaWi ,  the  River  Falls  Journal,  the  Racine  Advocate, 
the  Columbus  Jonrnal,  the  Virociua  Times,  the  Oshkosh  Demo- 
crat, and  the  Milwaukee  Sentinel,  continued  somewhat  mildly 


*' IWd.,  Aug.  1,  Aug.  o,  Sept.  11.  The  Weekly  (Madison)  Wisconsin  Patriot, 
Aug.  15'  and  Sept.  12.  To  bear  out  the  last  charge,  the  Argus  and  Democrat 
refers  with  indignation  to  a  case  in  Kenosha  of  marriage  between  a  white 
woman  and  a  negro. 


[119] 


120  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

to  advocate  negro  suffrage  and  insisted  that  the  Republican 
platform  had  endorsed  it.  Booth  in  his  Free  Democrat,  as- 
serted that  the  platform  "does  contain  the  free  suffrage,  in 
claiming  equal  rights  for  all  without  regard  to  color,"  and 
"that  this  must  be  construed  as  an  expression  of  sympathy  on 
the  part  of  the  Convention,  with  the  proposed  extension  of  suf- 
frage" and  "that  it  is  to  that  extent  an  endorsement  of  the 
measure."  The  Berlin  Courant,  predicted:  "Just  as  sure  as  this 
measure  of  justice  is  denied  by  the  Republicans,  just  so  sure  is 
the  death  warrant  of  our  party  sealed;"  and  the  Fond  du  Lac 
CommoniveaWi,  hoped  that  "the  party  is  not  so  hypocritical  as 
to  spurn  this  doctrine."  Byrd  Parker,  a  colored  man,  and 
others  of  his  race,  and  also  a  number  of  white  lecturers,  made 
speeches  to  secure  votes  for  equal  suffrage  and  were  heartily 
endorsed  and  praised  by  several  Republican  newspapers.  Other 
papers,  like  the  Grant  County  Herald,  came  out  in  opposition 
to  negro  equality,  and  others  still  avoided  the  question.  The 
Fond  du  Lac  Commonwealth,  rebuked  the  Madison  State  Jour- 
nal for  its  "cowardly  talk"  on  the  subject.  The  rebuke  w^as 
deserved:  in  stating  "the  issues  of  the  campaign"  on  August 
29,  the  Jovrnal  did  not  mention  the  negro  question:  on  Septem- 
ber 4,  after  the  convention  of  the  Republicans  had  met,  it  de- 
clared that  "the  platform  is  a  noble  one,"  and  that  "its  planks 
are  every  one  of  them  sound ;"  on  September  7,  it  objected  to  the 
assertion  of  the  Argus  and  Democrat  "that  color  is  a  ground  for 
proscription,  so  far  as  the  rights  of  suffrage  and  social  equality 
go ; "  but  it  never  ventured  an  unqualified  advocacy  of  negro 
suffrage.  The  Argun  and  Democrat  charged  that  the  Republi- 
cans had  abandoned  their  issues,  and  declared  that  negro  suf- 
frage had  "not  a  friend  to  support  it  as  a  political  measure," 
and  that  "a  Republican  convention  dare  not  endorse  it,  or  a 
Republican  candidate  go  before  the  people  upon  it."  The 
editor  of  this  journal,  nevertheless,  felt  aggrieved  that  the  Re- 
publicans had  not  insured  Democratic  victory  by  adopting  a 
fatally  unpopular  principle,  and  in  the  same  issue,  September 
11,  he  proclaimed:  "The  Republican  party  now^  proposes  to 
confer  the  right  of  suffrage  and  the  sacred  franchises  of  citi- 
zenship upon  the  black  race,  which  w^ould  render  them  eligible 

[120] 


OLBRICn— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  121 

to  the  highest  offices  in  the  State,  and  be  the  first  step  for  their 
admission  to  social  equality."  Later,  October  1,  he  adduced 
the  fact  that  "not  a  leading  Republican  paper  in  the  State  has 
uttered  a  solitary  word  against  the  negro  suffrage  plank  in  the 
Republican  platform,"  as  evidence  that  the  Republican  party 
was  identified  with  negro  equality.  The  people  refused  to  take 
that  view  of  the  situation;  in  November,  Alexander  Randall, 
the  Republican  candidate  was  elected  by  a  bare  majority  in  a 
total  vote  of  about  90,000;  but  the  proposition  to  extend  the 
elective  franchise  to  colored  persons,  on  which  there  was  cast  a 
total  of  67,656  votes,  was  defeated  by  40,106  to  27,550.  It  is 
significant,  however,  that  over  half  the  Republican  party  voted 
for  colored  suffrage,  that  seventeen  counties  gave  majorities 
for  it,  and  that  in  some  of  them,  notably  Walworth,  Racine, 
Waukesha,  Calumet,  Winnebago  and  Fond  du  Lac,  almost  the 
entire  Republican  vote  was  cast  for  it.''° 

Oregon,  1857 

In  the  far  West,  there  was  probably  no  more  demand  for 
negro  suffrage,  than  there  had  been  in  the  California  conven- 
tion of  1849.  In  1857,  Oregon  adopted  her  first  constitution, 
with  the  usual  color  discrimination  in  the  suffrage  article,  and 
submitted  to  the  people  along  with  the  constitution,  the  separate 
questions  of  slavery  and  of  the  immigration  of  free  negroes. 
The  voters  ratified  the  constitution  by  5710  to  2184,  the  article 
forbidding  slavery  by  6361  to  1382,  and  the  article  forbid- 
ding the  immigration  of  free  blacks  by  5479  to  651.  In 
the  older  states  the  friends  of  the  negro  were  nearly  always 
able  to  secure  repeal,  or  the  defeat,  of  laws  restricting  immi- 
gration, long  before  they  could  bring  about  the  adoption  of 
impartial  suffrage.  It  is,  therefore,  a  safe  assumption  that,  in 
1857,  there  was  in  Oregon,  practically  no  sentiment  whatever 
in  favor  of  granting  electoral  privileges  to  negroes. ^^ 


""The  Wisconsin  Jrij,is  and  Democral,  .Tuly  21,  August  1.3.  Sept.  5,  10.  11, 
14,  16,  October  1 ;  The  Madison  State  Journal,  August  29,  September  4,  7 ; 
Whig  Almanac  1858,  pp.  62,  63. 

^^  Journal  of  the  Orec/on  Constitutional  Convention^  1857,  pp.  58,  59,  60,  86.; 
wmr/  Almanac,  1858.  p.  63. 


[121] 


122  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UMVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 


Deed  Scott  Decision  and  Citizenship  in  New  England 

In  the  extreme  East  was  to  be  found  nearly  the  exact  antith- 
esis in  popular  feeling  on  negro  questions.  The  development 
of  New  England's  attitude  on  the  suffrage  is  not  easy  to  trace. 
Maine  refused  to  adopt  a  color  discrimination  in  the  convention 
of  1820-1821,  which  discussed  other  phases  of  the  voting  privi- 
lege, but  did  not  refer  to  a  color  qualification,  and  accepted  with- 
out question  a  suffrage  article  from  which  the  color  distinction 
was  absent."  In  Rhode  Island,  negroes  were  expressly  dis- 
franchised b}'-  the  Dorr  psewcZo-constitution  of  1841,  but  not  by 
the  instrument  adopted  in  1842.'^^  An  attempt  in  Connecticut, 
in  1846,  to  strike  out  the  word  "white"  which  had  been  adopt- 
ed in  1818,°^  was  overw^helmingly  defeated.'^^  In  the  Penn- 
sylvania convention  of  1837-1838,  one  member  said  he  had 
heard  of  a  colored  justice  of  the  peace  in  Maine.'^^*'  Chan- 
cellor Kent,  in  the  1848  edition  of  his  commentaries,  the 
last  one  that  could  have  been  revised  by  liimself,  retained 
the  statement  that  in  no  part  of  the  country  except  Maine, 
did  free  colored  persons,  "in  point  of  fact,  participate 
equally  with  the  whites,  in  the  exercise  of  civil  and  political 
rights. "°"  It  may  be  that  in  some  instances,  negroes  were 
excluded  from  the  ballot  box  on  the  ground,  that,  as  some 
courts  held,  they  were  not  citizens,^*  and  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  race  prejudices  against  negroes  persisted  even  in 
New  England. 

In  the  Massachusetts  constitutional  convention  of  1853,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  secure  a  provision  that  colored  men 
should  be  admitted  to  the  militia,  and  probably  would  have 
succeeded  if  there  had  been  a  state  militia  distinct  from  the 
national  militia  in  which  the  Federal  statutes  included  none  but 
white  men.  In  the  discussions  of  this  question,  a  member  said : 
"We  know  that  so  far  as  colored  citizens  are  concerned,  there 


^'' Ante,  pp.  25. 

s"  Anie,  p.  T2. 

^*^nte,  p.  24. 

'^■■Ante,  p.  78. 

""  Fa.  Von.  Debates.,  V.,  p.  451,  Maclay. 

5' Kent's  Commentaries,  TI.,  p.  258;  Weeks,  Pol.  Sci.  Quar.  IX.,  p.  679. 

"^IbUl.,  p.   677. 

[122] 


OLBRICn— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  123 

is  a  repugnance  Avhieli  *  *  *  it  would  be  difficult  to  get  over 
among  the  soldiers  of  our  companies.""''* 

It  was,  however,  not  considered  necessary  to  give  negroes 
civil  or  political  rights;  it  was  agreed  that  they  already  pos, 
sessed  them.  One  member  said:  "In  fact  there  is  nothing  to 
debar  the  colored  person  from  receiving  all  the  civil  and  politi- 
cal rights  that  are  possessed  by  every  other  citizen  of  Massa- 
chusetts. That  I  believe  is  the  fact,  and  it  is  one  of  Avhich 
Massachusetts  may  well  be  proud."  Henry  Wilson,  already 
prominent  as  an  anti-slavery  leader  and  afterward  one  of  the 
foremost  champions  of  negro  suffrage,  said :  ' '  The  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Commonwealth  knows  no  distinction  of  color  or 
race.  A  colored  man  may  fill  any  office  in  the  gift  of  the  peo- 
ple. A  colored  man  may  become  the  'supreme  magistrate'  of 
]\Iassachusetts.  """^  In  the  IMinnesota  Republican  constitutional 
convention  of  1857,  Mr.  Colburn,  who  was  born  in  New  Hamp- 
shire said  of  his  native  state:  "The  doctrine  of  negro  suffrage 
prevailed  there,  and  negroes  were  permitted  to  vote,"  and  de- 
clared that  a  like  situation  existed  in  IMassachusetts."^ 

"What  significance,  then,  is  to  be  attached  to  the  fact  that 
New  Hampshire  in  1S57,  and  Vermont  in  1858,  passed  laws  that 
guaranteed  the  rights  of  citizenship  to  negroes?  The  enact- 
ment of  these  statutes  has  been  interpreted  to  mean  that  the 
legislatures  were  trying  to  establish  the  negro's  right  to  vote."- 
Both  statutes  contain  sections,  providing  that  neither  descent 
from  an  African,  whether  slave  or  not,  nor  color  of  the  skin, 
should  disqualify  anyone  from  becoming  a  citizen  or  deprive 
any  person  of  a  citizen's  full  privileges.  The  New  Hampshire 
law,  which  was  passed  first,  also  contains  a  section,  to  the  effect 
that  the  suffrage  provisions  of  the  Compiled  Statutes  should  "not 
be  so  construed  as  in  any  case  to  deprive  any  person  of  color, 
or  of  African  descent,  born  within  the  limits  of  the  United 
States,  and  having  the  other  requisite  qualifications,  from  vot- 


'"  Massachiiseils  Convcnixiti  HcixuIn.  IST).',.  i..  p.  42."'>.  II..  pp.  72,  75,  83; 
III.,    p.   647. 

<"'lbi(i.,   II.,  pp.    ?:!,   71). 

'•1  Minnesota  Convention   Debates,  p.  .304. 

''^  Weeks,  op.  cit..  p.  077.  "New  Ham)ishire  found  it  nece.s.sai'y  in  1857,  and 
Vermont  in  1S58,  to  enact  tliat  negroes  should  not  be  excluded  from  the  ballot." 

[123] 


124  BULLETIN    OP   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

ing  at  any  election ;  but  such  person  shall  have  and  exercise  the 
right  of  suffrage  as  fully  and  lawfully  as  persons  of  the  white 
race."  These  provisions  can  well  be  construed  as  intended  to 
apply  especially  to  escaped  slaves  or  their  descendants,  and 
such  a  construction  is  in  accord  with  the  general  purpose  of 
the  other  sections  of  the  laAv  to  provide  for  trial  by  jury  of  all 
colored  persons  who  might  be  claimed  as  fugitive  slaves,  and 
to  hinder  the  execution  of  Federal  law  of  ISoO.*^"  It  may  have 
been  that  negroes  who  had  recently  came  into  the  state  from 
the  South  were  not  regarded  as  lawful  voters  by  the  election 
officers,  and  that  other  negroes  were  occasionally  hindered  in 
their  exercise  of  the  right  to  vote.  But  that,  in  the  New^  Eng- 
land states  where  no  color  discriminations  existed,  where  the 
anti-slavery  men  did  not  find  it  necessary  to  agitate  the  negro 
suffrage  question  in  state  constitutional  conventions,  and 
whence  came  the  abolition  orators  to  the  West,  negroes  were 
generally  kept  away  from  the  ballot  box,  is  inconceivable  in 
view  of  the  situation  in  other  states  where  negro  voting  -was 
illegal. 

In  spite  of  the  law,  colored  men  voted  in  Detroit,  Michigan, 
as  early  as  1814,  neither  political  party  making  objection.*'^ 
Fourteen  years  ago  (1906)  it  was  said:  "Almost  any  old  citizen 
of  Wisconsin  can  cite  instances  where  colored  men,  although 
not  legally  entitled  to  vote,  voted  regularly ;  and  a  Milwaukee 
newspaper  a  few  months  ago,  recorded  the  death  of  a  negro 
who  had  been  on  a  jury  before  the  War  of  Secession.""'^  In 
Ohio,  the  State  Supreme  Court  repeatedly  held  that  a  person 
with  a  preponderance  of  Caucausian  blood  was  to  be  legally 
considered  white  and  if  otherwise  qualified  had  the  same  right 
to  vote  as  men  of  pure  white  blood ;  and  in  1859  the  Court  de- 
clared unconstitutional  a  law  passed  April  2,  of  that  year,  for- 
bidding election  officers  to  receive  votes  from  any  man  with  a 
"visible  admixture"  of  African  blood. '^'^     It    is    entirely    cred- 


'^  Ln'ics  of  Ne)D  Hanipsltire,  passed  .Tune  Session  1857.  Ch.  1965.  Lmcs  of 
Vermont,   1858,   pp.   43,   44. 

'■■'  Ante,  p.   05. 

«■' Baker,  op.  cit.,  p.  12. 

^  Gray  v.  Ohio,  p.  4,  Ilommoncl,  p.  353  ;  Williams  v.  School  Directors,  Wright 
p.  570  ;  Jeffries  v.  Ankennij,  Dec.  Term,  1842  ;  Thacker  v.  Hawk,  vol.,  II,  Ohio,  p. 


[124] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  125 

i!)!e  that  a  fiood  of  mnlattoes  poured  in,  claiming  the  legal 
*' whiteness. "  and  that  in  strongly  Free  Soil  districts,  many  col- 
ored people  unlawfully  exercised  the  right  of  suffrage."'  In 
one  instance,  already  noted,  a  colored  man,  w^ho  may  have  been 
more  than  half  white,  was  elected  a  town  clerk  in  Ohio.*"'^  It  is 
probable,  therefore,  that  in  New  England,  where  the  lavv^  sanc- 
tioned negro  voting,  colored  persons  who  had  been  born  there 
exercised  the  right  of  suffrage  unquestioned,  and  it  is  possible 
that  the  statutes  passed  by  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  Avere 
partly  intended  to  remedy  the  doubtful  position  of  recent 
comers. 

The  main  purpose,  however,  in  passing  these  laws  was  to 
protest  against  the  recent  decision  of  the  United;  States  Su- 
preme Court  in  the  Dred  Scott  case.  In  his  message  to  the  New 
Hampshire  legislature,  June  4,  1857,  Governor  Haile  deplore*! 
the  grave  consequences  of  the  doctrine  laid  down  Iw  the  nui- 
jority  of  the  court,  that  free  negroes  were  not  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  "State  legislatures  have  fortunately",  he  con- 
tinued, "power  to  admit  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship,  and  to 
protect  those  citizens,  to  whom  such  privileges  are  denied 
under  the  declared  law  of  the  United  States.  When  the  highest 
tribunal  in  the  country  declares  that  citizenship  is  made  to  de- 
pend upon  mere  color  or  race,  the  race  prosecuted  should  have 
their  minds  relieved  from  all  doubts  concerning  their  rights 
under  the  laws  of  the  State.  With  this  view,  and  by  way  of 
protest  against  a  principle  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  our  institu- 
tions, it  may  be  expedient  to  declare  what  is  now  true,  that, 
under  our  local  law.  all  men  of  whatever  grade,  color  or  race, 
if  injured,  or  unjustly  deprived  of  their  property  or  freedom 
may  at  least  sue  for  redress  and  be  heard  in  our  courts  of  jus- 
tice.'''"  In  accordance  with  this  suggestion,  the  act  declaring 
the  rights  of  colored  men  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  184  to  114 


37fi  ;  Lane,  v.  Baker  et  al,,  vol.,  12,  Ohio,  237;  CJtam'bers  v.  Stewart,  vol.,  II., 
Ohio,  p.  3S6 ;  Stewart  v.  Southard,  vol.,  17,  Ohio,  p.  402 ;  Anderson  v.  Millikin, 
9,   VritchfleM,  p.  568. 

«'' Uenton's  report  to  Midiigan  Senate.,  1845,  Documents,  etc.,  no.  15. 

'''^  Ante,  p.   105. 

"^  New  Hampshire  House  Journal,  1857,  pp.  55,   56. 

[125] 


126  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

in  the  House,'°  and  a  vote  of  6  to  4  in  the  Senate.^^  The  negro 
question  was  also  raised  in  the  case  of  a  bill  for  remodelling 
the  state  militia  from  which  the  House  exj)unged  the  w'ord 
"white"  by  a  vote  of  138  to  126.'-  In  October  of  the  same 
year,  the  Governor  of  Vermont,  Kyland  Fletcher,  also  called 
attention  to  the  hatefull  doctrine  of  the  Dred  Scott  decision 
that  masters  could  carry  and  hold  their  slaves  anywhere  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  legislature  passed  resolutions  of  con- 
demnation. In  October,  1858,  the  new  governor,  Hiland  Hall, 
repeated  the  denunciations  of  his  predecessor  at  the  opening  of 
the  session  during  which  the  legislature  passed  a  law  similar 
to  that  of  New  Hampshire." 

New  York,  1857 

iMeanwhile  the  negro  suffrage  question  had  come  up  again 
in  the  State  of  New  York.  Several  petitions  that  the  question 
be  submitted  to  the  people  were  sent  to  the  legislature  during 
the  session  of  1857,^*  and  in  March  both  houses  passed  a  bill 
providing  for  a  popular  vote  at  the  fall  election."  However^ 
perhaps  because  the  Republicans  feared  the  political  effects  of  the 
certain  defeat  of  the  measure,  the  proposed  amendment  was  not 
published  three  months  before  the  elections,  as  the  constitvi- 
tion  required,  and  no  popular  vote  w^as  taken. '^  At  the  next 
biennial  session  in  1859,  the  legislature  passed  another  bill  sub- 
mitting the  issue  of  negro  suffrage  to  the  people  at  the  general 
election  of  1860."  In  the  stress  of  a  momentous  campaign, 
little  attention  seems  to  have  been  given  to  this  minor  ques- 
tion: the  New  York  Tribune,  which  had  championed  the  cause 
of  the  black  man  in  1846,  referred  little,  if  at  all,  to  this  matter 
in  the  year  of  Lincoln's  election  to  the  Presidency.    Neverthe- 


■'oimd.,  pp.    299-aOl. 

'•^Journal  of  the  Senate,  1857,  p.   137. 

"  House   Journal,    pp.    387,    389 

''■i  Vermont  Senate  Journal,  1S57.  pp.  27,  28,  29;  House  Journal,  1858.  pp. 
31.  32,  33,   305. 

■i^  House  Journal,  pp.  80,  226.  4.33,  636.  656,  757. 

^  Sen.  Journal,  pp.  353,  354.  The  vote  in  the  S^aate  was  21  to  5.  Hoii-<e 
Journal,  pp.  863.  864.     The  vote  in  the  House  was  75  to  27. 

™  Wisconsin  Argus  and  Democrat,  Sept.  11,  1857. 

•'  House  Journal,  p.    752. 

[326] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO   SUFFRAGE  127 

le&?!j  the  vote  on  the  subject  was  comparatively  large;  Lincoln 
defeated  Douglass  by  362,646  to  312,510,  and  the  proposed  ex- 
tension of  the  elective  franchise  by  abolishing  the  property 
qualification  for  colored  voters  was  rejected  by  337,984  to 
197,503.'« 

Relation  of  the  ^Movement  to  Current  Thought  and 

Politics 

The  negro  suffrage  agitation  before  the  Civil  War  was  one 
phase  of  the  most  important  of  ''idealistic  political  move- 
ments" in  American  Ilistory.  The  beginnings  of  the  abolition 
movement  had  accelerated  the  growth  of  sectional  antagonism 
between  North  and  South.  Political  controversy  in  turn  influ- 
enced men's  ideals.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  became 
more  and  more  potent  in  determining  the  thoughts  of  men  on 
negro  questions,  and  they  began,  not  only  to  vote  for  giving 
negroes  the  elective  franchise,  but  actually  to  treat  black  men 
with  more  consideration.  In  Illinois,  the  growth  of  anti- 
slavery  sentiment  in  the  northern  part  of  the  state  resulted  in 
opening  the  schools  to  black  men's  children.'^  The  Massa- 
chusetts legislature,  in  1843,  showed  faith  in  the  theory  that 
negroes  differed  from  white  men  only  in  the  color  of  the  skin 
by  repealing  the  law  which  forbade  marriage  between  whites 
and  blacks.^"  The  belief  in  freedom  and  the  resentment  of 
southern  aggression  were  also  manifested  in  numerous  statutes 
passed  by  northern  states,  especially  during  the  later  fifties,  to 
prevent  the  enforcement  of  the  fugitive  slave  laws.^^  Thus  did 
humanitarian  sentiment  and  political  enmity  support  and 
strengthen  each  other.  Perhaps  the  best  index  of  the  progress 
of  humanitarian  idealism,  is  the  growth  of  sentiment  in  favor 
of  negro  suffrage  from  the  Pennsylvania  discussions  of  1837 
and  1838  down  to  the  election  of  Lincoln.  The  movement  to 
grant  political  privileges  to  the  black  man,  almost  non-existent 
in  1840,  had  sprung  up  and  grown  strong  in  the  Northwest 


"  TriJjune  Almanac,  1870,  p.   53. 

■''Harris.   Xegro  Serviiudf-.   in   Illinois,  p.   2ol. 

5"  Kurd's  Latv  of  Freeilorn  ond  Bomlaoe,  II.,  p.   HO. 

^^  lUd.,  II.,  pp.  32,  85,  40,  50,   51,   47,  140,   142,  119  120,  121. 

[127] 


12S  BULLETIN    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF    WISCONSIN 

until  it  seemed  not  far  from  the  point  of  furnishing  a  principle 
of  the  Republicans  in  Iowa,  Minnesota  and  Wisconsin,  had 
continued  to  secure  converts  in  New  York  so  that  the  proportion 
of  voters  wiio  favored  equal  suffrage  grew  from  one-sixth  in 
1846  to  more  than  one-fourth  in  1860,  and  in  New  England,  had 
produced  decisive  manifestation  that  the  majority  of  the  peo- 
ple's representatives  were  anxious  to  guard  against  any  in- 
fringement of  the  black  man's  rights  to  vote.  There  was  in- 
deed a  great  difference  between  the  negro  suffrage  question 
before  the  war  and  the  negro  suffrage  question  after  the  war. 
The  question  presented  to  the  northern  people  before  1860  was 
whether  they  would  show  their  love  of  abstract,  principle  and 
their  feelings  against  slavery  by  permitting  a  small  number  of 
colored  men,  who  could  not  possibly  exercise  any  determining 
political  influence,  to  come  to  the  polls  and  deposit  paper  bal- 
lots along  with  the  whites.  The  question  presented  after  the 
war  was  whether  the  North  should  compel  the  South  to  commit 
the  mending  of  its  shattered  prosperity  to  the  government  of  a 
majority,  which  had  been  embittered  by  the  memory  of  four 
years  of  bloodshed,  and  which  was  mainly  composed  of  newly 
emancipated,  hopelessly  ignorant  negro  slaves.  The  revolution 
in  public  opinion  brought  about  by  the  Civil  War  included 
almost  as  great  a  change  of  sentiment  on  negro  suffrage  as  on 
any  other  question.  But  in  accounting  for  the  Reconstruction 
Act  of  1867,  and  for  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  the  tendency 
to  ignore  minorities  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  hide  the  fact 
that  before  the  war  began  in  two  such  representative  states  as 
Wisconsin  and  New  York,  the  principle  of  negro  political  equal- 
ity had  been  endorsed  by  more  than  half  the  voters  of  the  vic- 
torious political  party. 


[128] 


OLBRICH— NEGRO  SUFFRAGE  129 


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[135] 


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